Sins of the Fathers
by Apreciative Fan
Summary: When a new teacher that Moka's father seems to have a personal grudge against comes to work at Youkai academy and that teacher takes a special interest in Tsukune and his friends how will they cope? "Shadow and flame" First Fanfic
1. Tainted by fire

Chapter 1

I am Tsukune Aono, I was just an average 9th of average height and average build getting admittedly below average grades at an average high school until I failed my final exams and was informed that I would not be invited back to my school. My parents had given up unable to find an alternative school and thinking that their son would be a failure at 15 until my father on the way back from work found a flyer that had been dropped by a passing monk. He was about to return it when he noticed that the flyer had the picture of a school on it and was inviting students to come learn at a "Youkai Academy" my father was overjoyed thinking that their problem had been solved and within a week of informing of my mother and I, I was on a bus to Youkai Academy.

The bus was strangely empty and most of the trip took place inside of a dark tunnel I had never seen before and when the bus finally came to a halt and I began to leave the bus I stopped on the last step to stare at a scarecrow that was set up on a post in front of the door. In its left hand it held a sign that said 'Youkai Academy this way' upon its shoulders sat a Jack-O-lantern with a sinister grin carved into its face and with its right hand it pointed to a location beyond the bus.

I took a step to get off but a hand grabbed my shoulder I attempted to turn to face my assailant but only succeeded in tripping over my own feet and sat down hard on the cold brown earth. Wheezy laughter drifted down from the bus I stood dusting myself off and looked into the bus it was the bus driver, he must have grabbed my shoulder and was now laughing at the spectacle I had made of myself.

"This your first time at the academy boy?" he said past the cigar in his teeth and even though I was in the open air it made me wrinkle my nose from its noxious scent. He wore white gloves, a conductor's outfit and a green hat which shaded his eyes from view.

I slowly nodded my head he grinned and said

"How unfortunate for you, not many of your kind make it into that school let alone out". He started to laugh again then closed the doors and drove back inside the tunnel.

A little shaken I looked down the road and found myself gaping like a fish at the sight before me. To the right of the road was a sheer cliff that dropped into a blood red sea underneath an enormous sized sun. To the left was a path that led into a forest of twisted black leafless trees. After a few moments of indecision I resolved to follow the path because the road simply ended at the edge of the cliff and the tunnel would be too dark and too long to navigate on my own so I pressed onwards towards what I hoped would be the school.

The path was just as creepy on the inside as it was on the outside, the ground was cold and hard every once in a while I would come across a single tombstone or some disembodied fencing. Overlooking the path were the tops of the tree's forming a canopy that looked like it would descend and strangle you as soon as it would give you shade. It was thinking exactly this that I heard a bell, like on a bike and a girl screaming

"get out of the way!" followed shortly by a sharp pain in my back as I was hit with said bike and before I know it the bikes rider and I were tumbling through the dirt.

When we came to rest we both lay there for a moment dazed, I finally attempted to put my hand on the ground to stand up instead I accidently placed on the inside of the riders thigh coaxing a groan from its owner. I looked up at the person I had touched and saw without a shadow of a doubt the cutest girl I had ever seen. She was wearing the green and white school uniform with the plaid short skirt that looked like it would reveal what it was hiding underneath at the slightest movement which more often than not it did. She had a petite nose, small mouth, large eyes and bright pink hair that reached down to her waist, she also seemed to have a cross with a red bead in the center on a choker around her neck.

She looked at my hand on her leg which I quickly withdrew stumbling backwards and stuttering apologies

"I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... what I meant was" I stuttered to a halt as I realized my nose had started to bleed.

"Oh you're bleeding let me get it" she said pulling a handkerchief from her breast pocket hand poised when she froze, she stared Intensely at my blood then quickly looked away, her voice started to shake. "Oh no... It's happening again" she said, a little startled by the situation I said

"What do you mean?" she looked straight at me now perspiration beaded her pale skin

"Well... you see..." she moved so close I thought our lips would touch but she moved her head lower "I'm a vampire" then she bit me on the neck.

This started a long chain of events that would change my life forever, as it turns out I accidently enrolled in a school for monsters that teaches them how to blend in with human society. The girl who sucked my blood was really one of the most powerful monsters, the legendary vampire, fortunately for me one of the rules at Youkai Academy is to maintain your human disguise at all times so I was safe from speculation. My first year was very eventful and I made many friends such as Moka Akashiya, the vampire from before a shy yet strong hearted girl who I share a very special friendship with, Kurumu Kurono a succubus who can enslave men's bodies with a look and their minds with a kiss, Mizore Shirayuki an abominable snow woman that can control Ice, Yukari Sendo a very young with who due to her intelligence who skipped a couple of grades and Ruby the raven haired witch who works at the school doing odd jobs for the headmaster.

All of this happened during my first year at Youkai Academy now that summer vacation is over it's time for my second year and after last I'm brimming with happiness and confident that I can overcome any challenges that come my way. Little did I know that one was hiding behind a tree down the school path, again I was caught off guard while gazing at the canopy, a blue haired figure leapt from behind a tree into my arms and attempted to smother me in her ample bosom, had to be Kurumu.

"I missed you so much, the summer was so boring without you" I was about to answer her with something along the lines of 'can't breathe!' when with a familiar 'clang!' a bronze pot smacked her off to the side.

I sat down gasping for air from the not entirely unwelcome embrace when Yukari appeared wearing her signature cape, pointy hat and heart shaped wand.

"Tsukune! I've been waiting to tell you tell all summer I made a mirror that shows what you'll look like in the prime of your youth and believe me" she said baring her chest "If you left now you'd be missing out desu!"

I'm sure she would have continued but an encasing of ice formed around her followed by cold breath on my neck

"Tsu...Ku...ne" startled I quickly crawled forward and turned to find Mizore blushing and holding one of my pencils. "You dropped this when you got off the bus" she said sheepishly, I was glad to see her but my only response was

"You've been following me since I got off the bus!" She smiled and helped me upor at least tried to before Kurumu butted her out of the way and instead offered her hand which I warily took. Compared to the beginning of it the rest of the walk to school was pleasant with each member of our group regaling events that occurred during their individual summers, we were even able to talk to Ruby as she was sweeping the entrance to the school.

We finally entered the gym where the welcome back assembly was taking place and I immediately spotted Moka sitting at the front waving and gesturing for me to sit beside her. Smiling broadly I rushed to oblige her, but of course that was too easy and instead Kurumu sat down

"No sit next to me!" with a sigh I sat leaving only one free seat to my right and with a tea pot full of hot water Yukari fended off Mizore long enough to sit down and take the win. Unwilling to accept defeat and much to the annoyance of the others sat on my lap and interlaced her ice cold fingers through mine. The announcements proceeded as usual and the speaker and also our homeroom teacher Ms. Nekonome was about to dismiss us when the gym doors swung open and the headmaster a man completely clothed in white strode in gesturing for Ms. Nekonome to come to him and by the look on Ms. Nekonome's face something's wrong.

Now every monster has some sort of advanced hearing so I asked Mizore what they're saying, for a while she listened for a while with her brow furrowed but then it seemed a light of understanding dawned on her she leaned back and whispered in my ear.

"Remember when I was waiting for you at the bus stop, well before you came the headmaster and Moka's father were talking in front of my hiding spot, they were talking about how someone was coming to work at Youkai academy that Moka's father didn't like he said that his aura was blocking his sight of other auras even from his castle and that a second Rosario might be necessary to protect the barrier, now the headmaster is saying that the man would like to speak to us... personally". Kurumu of course was eavesdropping and said

"You didn't think this was important enough to tell us before?" unfazed Mizore replied

"You didn't ask". Sure enough Ms. Nekonome returned to the stage visibly shaken and announced

"It seems that I have forgotten one announcement, we have a new staff member who is also going to be a student at Youkai Academy, so please welcome him but treat him with respect, he will be speaking with you now". Ms Nekonome quickly moved off stage even going so far as to sprint the last 10 meters on all fours.

All eyes are on the stage waiting to see this person, the curtain shifts and a boy steps out no older than 17 wearing a black jacket with a grey hood, blue jeans and white sneakers he is also carrying a staff with strange runes and markings burned into it, he's using the staff as a walking stick despite having no pronounced limp. He stalked towards the middle of the audience his hood is pulled over his face yet keeping his head turned toward the audience as if studying the crowd then he comes to a stop feet evenly planted in the center of the stage. He lifts his staff and brings it down upon the stage; as soon as it touched it produced a loud ringing noise like striking a wine glass and almost immediately a wave of malice emanated from him and washed over every occupant in the gymnasium, Mizore squeezed my hand a little harder.

When he finally spoke his voice was smooth yet derisive and confident like he was standing over you pressing a knife to your throat

"My name is Noruas Kardrold, or if you prefer but as I couldn't care less what the insects call me I couldn't care less what you call me. I am as Ms. Nekonome pointed out a student here but I am also the school counsellor, police force, judge, jury and executioner, I work under my own jurisdiction so I can do whatever I please with you so I hope you don't mind if some of your classmates go missing through ought the year. No Ms. Shirayuki" he said turning his head to face her pulling back his lips in what should have been a smile your parents won't be able to do a thing about" Mizore sat suddenly bolt upright much to my discomfort "yes" he said now with a touch of mockery "I can quite freely read any one of your minds so try not to think too many dirty thoughts, is that understood?".

Nobody said a thing not a word, he chuckled "I knew I was blind" he swept back his hood revealing despite his personality quite a handsome face with un kept black hair and a scar that crossed his face running over top of two milky unseeing eyes "but I didn't think I was deaf as well".

"Ha!" came a voice from the crowd it was Saizou of the outcast Ayashi "how are you supposed to enforce school rules if you couldn't even read the sign to get here, this must have struck a nerve because Noruas stopped smiling and pointed his staff at Saizou

"I assure you... Saizou, that I could with no effort on my part kill you without seeing you, shall we demonstrate?" Saizou suddenly went pale "don't worry you are much too weak to show my potential how about" he moved his staff through the air then pointed it straight at Moka "you shall fight me".

You didn't need to read minds to sense the surprise from the crowd, how could he possibly stand against the most powerful of monsters the vampire?

"Tsukune?" I turned my head towards the stage at the mention of my name; Noruas was smiling down at me "would you be so kind as to remove Moka's Rosario so we may begin". I looked at Moka for confirmation she looked scared but she stood up and nodded her head, I reached up and pulled off the Rosario, Immediately demonic energy flowed from her, her hair turned silver, her fangs unsheathed themselves and she took on a more confident air, she turned and faced Noruas standing defiant before him.

"Tsukune" the inner Moka said "I won't fight him, no matter his arrogance, you had no business summoning me, and I won't fight a cripple".

Of course I hadn't considered what the inner Moka thought of the situation, feeling rather foolish I was about to return the Rosario to her when booming laughter echoed throughout the gym I looked around Moka to see I t was Noruas leaning on his staff and laughing.

"Forgive me" he said wiping the edges of his eye's "but I have picked up on what vampires are supposed to be like over the years, the most powerful and beautiful creatures to walk the earth they would have you believe, I knew the power was an exaggeration this is only proven by you" a muscle in Moka's jaw twitched "but I never thought they would be so, how do you say it, plain of face." At that well over half of the gym's occupants stood up including me, for it was a well known fact that Moka is one of if not the most beautiful girl in school. Even though the barb was clearly a lure the proud vampire took the bait leaping high into the air, preparing to descend upon Noruas him like an angel of death.

Noruas either had a death wish or he couldn't see her because he just kept on smiling at me even when she yelled

"Know your place!" and began to drop he didn't avert his gaze. I closed my eyes having seen this all too often and waited for the crack of bone and the sound of the crowd cheering at Nouruas's' defeat. I heard the crack of bone but it was followed by the sound of violent retching, I looked to my right to see an extremely pale Yukari throwing up and to my left Kurumu and Mizore with a look of horror upon their faces. I finally looked at the stage, Moka's leg had landed on his shoulder but where his shoulder should have been was black spiky armour that looked almost organic and Moka had impaled her leg on one of these spikes pushing the bone out of place which now protruded from the skin.

The black armour now covered the rest of his body and his staff had turned into a terrifying mace that looked as if it could bring down the foundations of a mountain, I couldn't imagine what it could do to flesh and bone. Unfortunately I didn't have to as Noruas now seven feet tall, lifted her leg of his shoulder and brought his mace into her stomach sending her into the ceiling and as she fell he went down on one knee allowing her body to impale itself on his shin plate. He then pushed her off letting her ruined body roll to my feet; I went down cradling her body and sobbing, at first all I could see was her blood pooling around her then all I could see was red.

While Tsukune was otherwise engaged Mizore and Kurume had more violent reactions, Kurume sprouted wings and extended her nails to intimidating two foot long talons, while Mizore shaped her hands into ice claws and shot deadly frozen shards at Noruas which had no visible effect simply melting before they reached him for his body now radiated heat. Kurumu flew at him attempting a 'fly by' but Noruas shot out his hand and grabbed her by her hair she had just enough time left to scream

"Tsukune!" before he used a knife he ejected from his gauntlet to slit her throat letting her life's essence drain onto the stage. Mizore raised an ice pillar from the ground and attempted to crush him against the ceiling but he suddenly just wasn't there, instead he appeared and he thrust his hand through her chest lifting her off the ground then discarding her corpse.

"Can you hear it Tsukune?" Noruas said his voice tainted by fire and turning with Mizore's heart in his outstretched hand "it still beats only for you". Tsukune remained silent staring down at his hands that were still drenched in the blood so previously shed by Moka. Yukari, grief stricken took a run at Noruas tears streaming down her face but he ended her valiant charge by kneeing her in the stomach.

Noruas toed Yukari's corpse with his boot "so young to have life taken from her, you know her last thoughts were of you, and so were both of theirs and hers, they all loved you with their dying breath. Yet you have failed to show even the slightest bit of anger at their passing, what will it take to get a reaction from you, perhaps I should go after your darling cousin or... your mother".

The snap is almost audible all of Tsukune's anger and rage burst forth with his vampire blood, his seal could do nothing to stem the tide of his anguish and he focused all of it into one punch towards the one responsible for it all. He moved so fast that the air rent around him paying no heed to the blisters that formed on his body from the heat resonating off his opponent's body, and the blow that would have shattered even the schools barrier produced only a dull thud when it finally impacted on Nouruas's chest. It would have looked almost comical were it not for the sound of every bone in his arm and shoulder compacting into the consistency of sand and Tsukune slumping onto his knees.

Noruas looked down at him for a while before lifting him into the air and pulling back his armoured fist for a finishing blow, Tsukune had barely enough air in his scorched lungs to ask "What are you" his armoured opponent said nothing only inclining his head slightly before launching his fist.

Authors Note: Warning first fan fiction.


	2. Gifts and apologies

Tsukune slowly opened his eyes and then quickly shut them as the light overhead however dim was like taking a sledgehammer to his already throbbing head. After a few moments he worked up the courage to open his eye's a crack, and saw by the distinctive wallpaper and the IV attached to his arm that he was in the academy hospital. Astounded by the fact he was alive he simply lay on his bed and thought of the previous events and almost immediately a wave of despair and sorrow passed over him as he recalled the individual deaths of those he held dear.

Despite his pain he was still able to notice a small movement in the corner of the room and when he turned his head to get a better look and there sitting by the window gripping his staff was Noruas. Revulsion and anger welled up in Tsukune and he spat out

"You!" Noruas quickly looked up and smiled a disarmingly friendly smile and said

"Ah your awake, I was beginning to think that your wounds would be too traumatic for you to handle". The calm friendly tone caught him off guard, but Tsukune didn't let up and yelled

"You killed them!" he quickly sat up and was about to yank out the IV but Noruas was across the room in an instant and forced him back onto the bed.

"Shush" he whispered "you'll wake the others"

"Others?" Tsukune asked

"Yes your friends are still recuperating in the other room and so should you." he said holding him down with his off hand while checking the IV bag with the other.

"There still alive!" Tsukune asked incredulously

"Of course" Noruas said with a touch of smugness creeping into his voice "One of my many talents is the ability to induce rapid cell growth healing almost any wound in an instant, however this leaves the one being healed completely exhausted which is why you and your friends are still here. They woke up yesterday but you remained asleep and I was worried that I had caused permanent damage, I've never attempted to heal something as serious as a decapitation before".

_Decapitation? No wonder my head hurts _he thought appalled, but he was still curious,

"Why did you kill us if you were just going to heal us later?" He cocked an eyebrow at Tsukune obviously thinking that he should have figured it out already and said

"For appearances Mr. Aono, as you can see my human form is rather unimposing especially for the school enforcer and short of picking a fight with our dear Moka's father which I most certainly would have lost in my present state, the only way to make a name for myself and to show I'm not to be trifled with was to take on you five and win. Other than that I had no interest in killing you so I healed you because I like so many others wish to see who you finally choose to be yours."

Then much to Tsukune's surprise Noruas bowed and said "I hope you can forgive me and we can continue the school year without any grudges holding us back." Tsukune was about to tell him off but he did seem sincere and no permanent harm had been done so he forgave him.

"Well that makes one of you" Noruas muttered "your friends had more... hostile reactions; Miss Kurono even went so far as to throw a chair at me, come to think of it they all threw some object or another at me. Since you were such a good sport about it and I knew you would, I've decided to give you a gift; he then pulled a brightly wrapped box out from under a nearby bed and placed it on Tsukune's chest. "And with that I think I shall leave" Noruas said heading to the door,

"Wait!" he said hoping to squeeze as much information as he could, "What are you?" and as an afterthought he added "are you really blind?" Noruas turned to face Tsukune smiling again

"Of course I'm not blind; I wanted to have the students think they had a sporting chance, and as for what I am I think I've regurgitated enough information for one day, which reminds me." He pulled a garbage can next to my bed "you're going to need this".

He left before Tsukune could stop him again and he was left alone with his gift. After a while his curiosity got the better of him and he began to unwrap it, it smelled of death and when he moved it he could hear something rolling around inside. When he finally unwrapped it and peered inside he immediately turned and threw up in the garbage can, for in that brightly wrapped box was his head.

Note from author: TBA


	3. Contrasts and conundrums

After a few days at the hospital and after properly disposing of that unfortunate piece of baggage (you'd be surprised at how many head jokes someone can tell in a few days but Noruas seemed to pull it off quite happily) Tsukune and his friends were discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health. However they spent most of next week catching up on their school work leaving little time for any association, except when by chance they met in the halls and even then they'd only be able to share a wave or a smile.

This only made their dislike of Noruas all the more extreme for the robbery of their time together; the girls took it especially hard. They knew Tsukune would have gladly made time for them but they didn't want to disturb his studies, except for maybe Mizore who still found the time to peer in Tsukune's bedroom window at nights. Finally when they had all caught up on their schoolwork they were able to make plans to have lunch at the newspaper club room, we had bought some snacks and drinks and finally had the chance the chance for the first time in a week to talk, laugh, and joke and Tsukune quietly thought to himself this is how it's supposed to be.

Then all talking in the room stopped as they heard an eerily familiar sound step, step, tap, step, step, tap and they all turned in time to see Noruas walk in quite uninvited. He took a look around the room closing the door behind him eliminating any hope of a quick exit

"I was hoping to find you five here" he said sitting in a chair in the corner of the room and putting his feet up on the nearest desk "what a happy coincidence that my day off happened to land on the day of your little get together".

Their gaze never left him knowing full well it was no coincidence; Kurumu was the first to break the silence holding back no hostility as she said

"What are you doing here Noruas?" Noruas laughed and said

"Why Ms. Kurono, I had no idea we were on a first name basis" Kurumu bristled "but to answer your question I was simply in the neighbourhood and I wanted to stop by for lunch". With this he pulled out a sphere from his jacket pocket that was covered in mouths and lolling tongues that released a thick odour of blood through ought the room and immediately the Mizore, Moka, Kurumu and Yukari tensed and looked at the orb in longing while Tsukune wrinkled his nose.

"Ah, so you've encountered the Monster Durian" Noruas said with a look of immense satisfaction, he pulled a knife from his sleeve and began to peel the fruit with remarkable dexterity, "a funny little fruit, a delicacy among monsters yet a deadly poison to humans, and guarded by fearful plant monsters. For the longest time nobody had been stupid enough to try and retrieve one up until about a year ago, a group of miscreants from Youkai Academy went looking for one on some foolhardy competition, and two of them were even ingested or so I've heard".

There was many a clearing of throats and embarrassed looks coming from the opposite table as it was of course our group of miscreants that had attempted the gathering of said Monster Durian, and it was Tsukune and Moka that had become temporarily ingested before the inner Moka could kick their way out and more than one of them was curios how he came across one, '_come to think of It' _Yukari thought '_he does have a greenish substance dripping off his boot almost like... blood'_.

By this time Noruas had fully revealed the ball of red flesh and was slowly bringing it to his mouth and took a small bite making clearly exaggerated satisfactory sounds, coaxing a moan from Moka. When he finally swallowed the piece he looked ready to take another bite but then without warning said

"Think fast!" and tossed the fruit at Moka who with a caught it with a surprised expression, looking content he rolled up his sleeve and began sharpening his knife against his skin causing sparks to fly with every stroke and whistling to no particular tune. Moka passed the fruit to Yukari who uttered several spells for the detection of poisons before finally cutting the fruit into four pieces and sharing it between Moka, Kurumu, Mizore and herself (Tsukune passed).

"You know, I don't get him" Tsukune whispered " First he kills us, then he brings us back, then he gives me my head as a gift and now he's handing out Monster Durian, why does he even come to class if the only thing he does is bother us?"After a few moments silence Mizore said

"I think I may be able to answer that one, last year when I missed the first quarter of the semester I received a letter from the headmaster saying that if I didn't attend school the headmaster would personally remove me from the premises on the suspicion that I was freeloading, Noruas may be afraid that he'll receive a similar demand".

"Hmm" Tsukune acknowledged "it seems that Noruas is just as intimidated by the headmaster as the rest of us". It was then that Tsukune noted that the scraping and whistling had stopped, he looked at where Noruas was sitting but he was gone, a feeling of dread formed in the pit of his stomach and he slowly turned around to see Noruas standing over him smiling.

He threw his knife down pinning Tsukune's hand to the table lifted him up by his collar and said

"Do not assume I am intimidated by anyone". He retrieved his knife from the table and began to walk to the door leaving Tsukune cradling his bleeding hand while the girls crowded around him.

"What's wrong with you?" Kurumu yelled at Noruas as he opened the door

"You know Tsukune" he said over his shoulder "if this newspaper club thing doesn't work out don't worry, at least you'll still have a good head on your shoulders" He burst out laughing and left while several ice shards and tarot cards 'thunked' into the door behind him.

Note from author:

Sorry if it takes a bit longer for the next one to come out but final exams are next week, Sorry!


	4. A dark discussion

The headmaster's office was very dim and musty and even though Ruby had been here several times before she couldn't help but feel intimidated by it and its owner. The Headmaster as usual was sitting at his large desk with his hands interlaced and smiling at her from under his white hood. Ruby bowed and said

"You asked for me headmaster?"

"I did Ruby" he said in his commanding voice, "I would like you to find Mr. Kardrold and bring him to my office I need to discuss something with him", Ruby tensed at the name, the headmasters smile grew "you don't like my new employee?"

Ruby had heard all about what happened at the gymnasium and she had visited Tsukune often at the hospital, so she was naturally hostile towards Noruas. She didn't know how the headmaster would respond to her aggression so she tread somewhat more lightly than she would have liked

" I don't like his methods nor do I like him he, is too young and impulsive to be a teacher at Youkai academy, plus he very nearly killed Tsukune and the others not even a month ago." The headmaster replied with maybe a hint of amusement lining his voice

"He was also the one who healed them shortly after, the ends justified the means, and he is still an employee of mine and I would still like you to get him for me." Ruby wisely backed out of the room not wanting to test the Headmaster further, she shut the door quietly and turned to see Noruas standing in front of her and she immediately shrank back against the door under his smoldering gaze.

He walked slowly towards her placing his hand on the door she was backed up against effectively trapping her,

"T-the headmaster would like to see you" she managed to stammer out. He glared at her for a few seconds before answering her in a clearly angered voice

"I am aware", the temperature in between them began to increase steadily and Ruby began to sweat, Noruas didn't seem to notice.

"You know" he said "I saw a raven this morning as I was doing my morning patrol, and it seemed to be doing the strangest thing" he phrased it as a question but all Ruby could manage to say was

"Oh".

"Yes" he continued "it almost seemed to be following me from tree to tree as I walked along, I know you share a special relationship with the ravens here so I wanted to ask if this was unusual behaviour for a raven" his glare made it obvious this wasn't what he was asking at all, and in fact Ruby had sent a spy in the form of a raven to check up on him partly because Tsukune had asked her to but mostly because she didn't like not knowing where he was.

Of course she couldn't say this so she just replied

"I don't keep tabs on all the ravens at school and to assume I do is very ignorant of you, now if you excuse me" she attempted to walk past her but he caught her by her throat and effortlessly slammed her back against the door

"Don't lie to me" as the iciness in his voice increased so did the heat he generated which was now sweltering. Luckily for Ruby the headmaster's voice called from his office

"I'd prefer if you didn't harm Ms. Toujou , now please come inside I'd like to speak with you", Noruas hesitated for a moment then whispered to Ruby

"If you'd like your shoulders to continue to bear the burden of a head you better pull your little 'my first surveillance team' off of me, I have a list from the headmaster of students I'm not allowed to kill permanently and guess what you're not on it so back off!" he let go of her letting Ruby slide to the floor before responding aloud "Very well" and walking into the office leaving her coughing and soothing her searing throat.

The Headmaster seemed only distantly annoyed saying

"If you continue to assault you're fellow staff and students I might have to reconsider my offer of sanctuary at the school Lungorthin." Noruas whipped his head up and released a hiss at the sound of the name

"You have no right to call me that"; The Headmaster smiled again

"But is that not the name your father gave you when he died and you were named his successor".

"Yes" he growled "that is my birth name, but the name my enemies fear and hate is Noruas and that is what I shall be called, now what did you summon me here for". The headmaster was about to answer but Noruas held up his hand, his head swivelled towards the door, he narrowed his eye's and strode to the door and banged his staff against it, there was a yelp and the sound of embarrassed footsteps walking away.

"I have to question your choice of company old man; I don't know why you keep her here, she only harbours thoughts of that boy you have charged me with, Tsukune."The headmaster waved away the criticism

"You are getting off topic Mr. Kardrold, I called you here to ask where you are planning to go during the Christmas break, and you know full well the borders of my offered sanctuary only extend to the borders of this school." It was Nouruas's turn to smile

"I'm off to visit a vampire coven nearby, a cousin of our very own Moka Akashiya is the head, I'm intrigued with the vampire self imposed system of government and I'd like to see it firsthand". The Headmasters smile disappeared

"Now Mr. Kardrold we both know your kind and vampires don't get along very well your feud is even deeper than their hatred of werewolves, are you sure it's wise to drop in, even for such an innocent trip?" Noruas feigned shock

"Why headmaster I'm appalled you would even bring that up, besides it's not my fault if they start something they can't finish" Noruas walked to the door and opened it "they really should know better than to live in those rickety old mansions, they're just one big fire hazard". He laughed and walked out of the office leaving his handprint that had been burned into the wood clearly visible.

The headmaster sighed knowing that this would incite a great deal of fighting outside and inside of the academy and that his colleague, Moka's father, would be enraged to know one of his daughters was in the same school as a Balrog.


	5. Sweet and sour dreams

Tsukune let out a contented sigh as he lay against the red satin pillow, Moka snuggled against his side. Tsukune had just awoken and now gazed at the sleeping form that was Moka brushing the hair away from her face; he continued to stare at her lovingly until he finally pulled her closer and kissed her forehead,

"Good morning". He felt her eyelashes flutter awake against his chest; she giggled and looked up at him then kissed him. When they parted she breathed into his ear

"Together forever" he smiled at her then kissed her again

"Together forever" he agreed. A seductive voice that was neither his nor Moka's responded

"but only if you choose", Tsukune quickly twisted to his right and found Mizore smiling up at him clinging to his arm tightly

"Choose" she urged. Shocked Tsukune attempted to sit up but a great weight forced him down, the covers of the bed were cast aside and he saw that Kurumu was sitting astride his chest, Yukari and Ruby each held a leg

"Choose! Choose! Choose!" Tsukune struggled with both the weight on his body and the weight of his decision

"Wait!" he begged weakly

"give me more time!"

"Choose now or lose us forever!"

"No!" he screamed, he wasn't ready to lose any of them but he knew even if he chose one he would lose them like they said forever.

***

"Tsukune?"

"Tsukune?"

"Tsukune would you please return to the world of the living so you can hear what I have to say". Noruas was standing over Tsukune who had fallen asleep looking out the window during class, he had been daydreaming about what he and his friends would do over Christmas break the next day and his daydreams had slipped into actual dreams. He might have gotten away with it were it not for the light snoring, unfortunately for him he had been found out just as Noruas was about to make an announcement.

"Tsukune" Mizore urged while she nudged his shoulder with her hand, Noruas however went with a more direct approach; Noruas removed the hand that was supporting Tsukune's head allowing his face to slam into the desktop.

"Hey!" Kurumu protested but Noruas silenced her by raising his hand he whispered

"Wait... listen" despite the violent attempt at rousing him Tsukune was still snoring and mumbling in his sleep. Noruas raised an eyebrow unimpressed "Hm" he contemplated the situation for a while before lifting his staff above head and slamming it right next to Tsukune's head, even this proved ineffective as Tsukune had his eye's firmly shut with a grimace upon his face. "Ha" Noruas laughed aloud "I don't believe it", still chuckling to himself he rummaged inside of his jacket pocket and produced a small bag tied with a golden chord; he untied the chord and pulled out a small bright red gumball. Yukari who was always interested in potentially magical items leaned forward in her desk mouth agape and asked

"are those..."

"Yes they are" Noruas interrupted "I was saving them for a rainy day but this is a perfect opportunity to try them out". He popped the little red sphere into his mouth chewed it quickly then swallowed it, he stood there for a while with his eyes closed then leaned in closer to Tsukune and whispered into his ear "Tsukune". There was a sharp intake of breath from Moka because even though it was Noruas who said it the voice belonged to Moka, Tsukune's pained expression relaxed and he breathed

"Moka" he hesitated then added "I don't want to choose yet". Noruas giggled seductively eerily similar to Moka and replied

"you may have to choose sooner than you think because... I'm pregnant". Tsukune's eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright looking frantically side to side Noruas cleared his throat and his voice went back to normal "not to worry Tsukune you won't have to face that hurdle yet, however your nightmares seem to be getting worse, was it all five of them this time?" The anger and embarrassment in the room was almost tangible while Noruas was his own little ray of sunshine as he walked to the front of the room whirled around and smiled cheerily at the entire gloomy classroom. "Well I hope you guys don't have any plans for winter break because you'll be spending it with me" there was a moment of shocked silence in the room instantly followed by outrage and protestation. "Now now" he said waving away the outburst of complaints and profanity "try to contain your excitement", a female student yelled

"but I have to study for Midterms!" and Saizou exclaimed

"and I was supposed to spend Christmas with Mommy and- uh I mean my parents". Noruas was unfazed

"Not to worry I took the liberty of sending permission slips to your parents to be signed beforehand and they all said yes! Oh and don't bother going to the headmaster he agrees with me too" he clapped his hands together "isn't it wonderful!"

Tsukune was distraught he had planned for several things for over the Christmas break and all of them had been planned to be held at the academy

"W-where are we going?" Now Noruas was practically bouncing with barely contained enthusiasm

"We are going to visit a vampire coven!" Now the room became dead silent any complaints were choked out by the thought that any of them were going to be any closer than thirty kilometres from a large group of the most violent and strongest species of monster. Not in the least bit discouraged by the silence Noruas continued his beaming "I actually think that you may know one of them Ms. Akashiya, her name is Selene Arnauld I've had the displeasure of meeting the creature before and she said that she was related to your father's house, is that true?" Moka quickly nodded her head and nervously said

"yes, she's my cousin" Noruas laughed and made his way to the door

"There, now I'm sure Ms. Akashiya can put in a good word for the lot of you and if you're really careful they may only eat most of you." The bell rung and the students recovering from minor shock began collecting there things, Noruas smiled at each of them as they passed him on the way out "pack your things tonight and meet at the bus stop nine o clock sharp tomorrow morning"

***

Any thought of escaping the next morning were dispelled as Noruas came to each dorm room and awoke each student, any who resisted were humoured with a short fight before being dragged conscious or not to the bus stop. The good mood of Noruas never faltered until he led the shambling line of students to the bus stop where not surprisingly was the school bus with the cigar favouring bus driver leaning against the doors. When Noruas saw this he immediately flew into a rage and marched up to the bus driver, the argument was short and from what the class could hear which was a lot because Noruas was yelling at the top of his lungs Noruas had planned some other mode of transportation but the Headmaster had insisted that they use the bus. When Noruas had finally finished his rant the bus driver calmly said

"Look the headmaster say's the only way your leaving this school is if I drive you and personally I look forward to seeing you squirm". Noruas made a deep guttural growling noise and the students thought for sure that he was going to take a swing at the bus driver and there was not one person in that crowd who knew for sure who would win that one but Noruas merely lifted his head tapped his staff on the ground and said

"fine". He turned towards the students his good spirits apparently soured and growled through clenched teeth "get in" not wanting to push him any further they quickly obliged piling onto the bus. As Tsukune helped Moka onto the bus she wrinkled her nose

"what is it?"

"I smell garlic" Noruas was listening nearby and he quickly scanned the crowd and stopped Saizou before going on the bus

"wait". Using his staff he pulled down Saizou's shirt collar to reveal a necklace of garlic, Saizou remained defiant

"hey I'm not going to be eaten by no vampire purebred" Noruas sighed

"There are exactly five places on a person's body where a vampire can draw blood six for boy's so unless you plan on investing in a garlic jockstrap I would advise you to give it up" He turned towards the students "anyone else have any Anti-vampire Items I should know about?" As it turns out the amount of crosses bottles of holy water and garlic wreaths made up a good third of the luggage, even Kurumu and Mizore had a significant stash of anti vampire gear. After that little scene was over and everyone was comfortably aboard the bus Tsukune found himself in a rather difficult position

"so" said the quartet of monsters surrounding Tsukune "what did he mean the other day about all five of us?"

"Oh no" thought Tsukune "This is going to be a long Christmas break"


	6. Future thoughts and past meals

The first hour of the bus ride was relatively quiet compared to the first fifteen minutes, wherein Tsukune expertly dodged questions about his dream the night before last under the piercing glare of four suspicious females, no small feat considering that most men crumple under the gaze of one. Noruas was also unusually quiet and simply stood at the front of the bus next to driver holding onto the doors handrail, probably a bit harder than necessary because with each passing minute it was slowly giving away from the floor. After an hour of doing nothing but staring out at the unchanging scenery and Mizore staring at him a thought struck Tsukune,

"Moka?"

"Hm?" she said turning her head and letting her pink mane fall off her shoulder

"Where does your cousin live?" She gave an embarrassed smile and looked down "I-I really don't know, I've never met her she has only visited our castle once and that was before my father made the Rosario so I was... not around" Kurumu lolled her head backwards over the seat to look at Moka desperate to break the boredom

"You never asked about her?"

"Well, the inner me did once and she quickly found out that my father wanted nothing to do with her ever since she refused to live in his castle and instead went off on her own; but the inner me was persistent and looked up Selene Arnauld in our library. She found that Selene was the daughter of our father's sister, but after she died Selene abandoned her family name and started a new coven secluded from the rest of the vampire world. Selene and her mother also possessed supernatural strength even for a vampire." Tsukune recoiled slightly at the thought of a creature that was considered supernaturally strong by vampire standards and thought it must run in the family

"Well then how does Noruas know where she lives?"

she shrugged her shoulders and said

"you're asking me?" A small gasp came from Kurumu and she quickly covered her mouth, Tsukune furrowed his brows

"is there something wrong?"

"No!" she squeaked "Um, Tsukune? Could you please go and ask the bus driver how much longer until we get there?" He seemed suspicious but stood up and walked to the front of the bus, Kurumu waited until he was talking with the driver before she quickly sat down in Tsukune's place and pulled Moka and Mizore towards her until they had their multi-coloured heads together. "Okay listen" Kurumu whispered in a serious tone "Tsukune is still partially human and if past events are anything to go by he has extremely tasty blood right?" Mizore and Moka nodded their heads. Blushing slightly she added "It's also been established that Tsukune is not to bad look at either right?" also blushing they nodded their heads absentmindedly lost in thought "and so we have a human, handsome, tasty blooded Tsukune going to be living in vampire coven which may very well be full of female bloodthirsty vampires". Moka's eyes widened and Mizore's sucker dropped from her open mouth both of them turned incredibly pale, also pale Kurumu nodded "Exactly, for the entire time we're there we can't let him out of our sight got it?" Mizore pulled out from their little circle replacing her sucker

"When did you think I was going to do otherwise boob-woman." Kurumu also reared upright

"I was just asking for you to take time out of your stalking and actually watch him instead of your usual gawking at him through his window." This probably would have escalated further if not for Tsukune's timely interruption

"Ahem" three heads quickly looked up and saw Tsukune standing over them looking mildly annoyed at being left out again from their inner discussions that always seemed to concern him somehow

"Tsukune!" Moka said recovering first "what did the bus driver say?" still irked somewhat he responded

"he said we'd be arriving around five o clock but that we might be delayed, he seemed rather amused by something"

"Delayed?" Kurume asked "Delayed by what?" As if on cue the sound of wrenching metal brought everyone's eye's to the front of the bus, it seemed Noruas had finally managed to rip the railing from the floor and was now down on all four's head hung low and breathing heavily

"I can't take it anymore" he said, his voice strained "stop the bus" the bus driver was quite obviously trying not to laugh but managed to say

"Are you sure you want me to stop here and not further up the road where we can" Noruas cut him off slamming his fist into the bus floor denting it

"Stop the damn bus!" Now shaking with barely contained mirth the driver pulled over and opened the doors which Noruas stumbled out of, everyone on the bus pressed their faces against the window to see what could have affected Noruas so badly and were not disappointed Noruas was clearly, not ten feet from the bus, with his hands on his knees, puking his guts out. He was carsick, of all people the one person that they knew that could withstand a kick from Moka and laugh about it was carsick from an hour's travel on a bus. The silence lasted a second maybe two before the entire bus exploded with laughter and many a gasping for air and falling off seats, after Noruas was finally done and he dragged himself back onto the bus it seemed he took no notice of the merriment at his expense and just lay splayed out on the floor with his eyes closed breathing deeply. Tsukune always the gentleman offered to help him, forcing words past his somewhat restrained chuckles

"Do-do you need a hand?" Noruas didn't answer immediately and instead waited for the bus to start again before taking a deep breath and said

"Not unless you want to learn how to take off that Rosario with your toes". Despite the malicious comment the laughter continued and by the time it had reduced to small outbursts of the occasional giggle Noruas had to stop the bus again to relieve himself of his previous meal and it started all over again. This cycle repeated itself until the bus stopped on its own accord and a feeling of dread descended upon the bus's occupants, "Ladies and gentleman" Noruas said sitting up from his spot on the floor smiling devilishly upon them "We're here"

Authors note:

Hey guys! I haven't written an author's note in a while so this is overdue, thanks for reviewing guys I'm glad you liked the last few chapters I have to admit the first three were... mediocre. Sorry this one was shorter than usual but I wanted to pack the entire introduction to the coven in one chapter and to Alhazad2003 sorry Noruas is only humbled once in this chapter I have decided to save his second humbling to the next chapter please don't think badly of me. Oh and sorry for the title change but the stories plot has changed significantly since the beginning of me writing and the new title seemed appropriate.


	7. Unwitting travelers

"Step lively people the last leg of our journey is upon us" Noruas was directing the students off the bus and was once again his ridiculously cheerful self despite his previous predicament. Tsukune and company reluctantly stood and grabbed their bags from underneath their seats and took part in the shambling line that lead off the bus. Tsukune was at the rear of the formation and was about to follow Moka down the steps but he was roughly pulled aside by the driver

"Hey!"

"Shh!" the driver said past his usual cigar "I've got a gift for you boy" Tsukune to say the least was wary of what kind of gift the often shady bus driver would have for him but the man merely chuckled "don't worry it's not from me it's from the headmaster" This did little to reassure Tsukune but he accepted what looked like a small case from the man, on closer study the lid of the case was covered in green velvet and the lock on the side was an image of a sword going through a horned open mouthed demons head. Puzzled as to the contents of the box he attempted to open it but as soon as he tried the demons mouth snapped shut and the lid refused to budge. Tsukune was now extremely curious

"Well what's in it?"

"Hell if I know" the bus driver laughed "but the headmaster said it will open when you need it" Knowing the headmaster Tsukune deducted that whatever is inside the case would probably be extremely important so he tucked it away inside his bag and began to, again make his way down the steps but was pulled back to the driver's seat, again.

"Oh, almost forgot" he said in a more serious tone "keep it away from that Noruas dirt bag, don't let him know about" Tsukune was caught off guard somewhat but nodded and was about to leave but he stopped suddenly as a thought struck him, he turned back and asked

"How am I supposed to not let him know when he can read my mind whenever he wants?" The driver tapped the side of his head

"He can only see your current thoughts, if you don't want him to see what you're thinking just think about something else" Tsukune felt a little silly but he tried blotting out all thoughts about the box as he walked off the bus and searched for other thoughts to occupy his head but was interrupted by the driver once again "Oh and boy, watch your step" he said shortly before a distracted Tsukune misjudged the distance to the ground, and fell off the bus.

"Tsukune!" said four startled and mildly amused female Youkai who ran to his side and helped him to his feet "thank you" he said flustered and they smiled in return, but it seemed Tsukune's vertical position was not to be as Noruas strode past him towards the bus tripping him with his staff as almost an afterthought.

"Your services are no longer required you may leave" said Noruas smiling at the headmasters accomplice, the bus driver ground his teeth into his cigar but remained stationary in his seat, Noruas waved him away still smiling "shoo", the driver snorted but finally closed the doors and drove back down the road out of sight with Noruas waving at him the whole way. "Ah, the fool" Noruas turned to the small crowd of students and walked past them into the forest of tall conifers they had been dropped off at, "well come on!" he said over his shoulder "let's not keep the parasites waiting, all offense intended" and then disappeared down the small rough cut path. The students stared after him unmoving at the imposing forest in front of them and dreading what may lay inside of it, but eventually shouldering their packs they trudged after him. The forest that may have looked pleasant in the day looked only ominous in the fading light and the boughs cast long shadows that stretched over the path like talons. Tsukune quietly laughed to himself, Mizore turned her head and looked over top of her mauve bag back at Tsukune

"What is it?" he smiled up at her

"Nothing, just that this place reminds me of school" That lifted their spirits a little bit and the thoughts of home allowed them to continue to follow the path with more determination.

*****

"Come on, Chris, were almost there." Drew said while helping Chris up a hill.

"Are you absolutely sure that this is the right way?" Christian asked, not entirely trusting of his best friend's navigation skills and for good reason. The pair had been wandering around for hours looking for Kyuuketsuki Lake and the castle ruins that were supposed to be near it, and so far they had only been able to find miles of forest and the hill they were climbing now.

"No worries," Drew reassured him "If the map we bought from that Japanese cartography shop is accurate," he said, unrolling aforementioned map, "and the storeowner is correct, at the top of this hill we should be able to see both the lake and the ruins."

"I hope so," Christian said, removing his hat to smooth back his silver blonde hair that dirty blonde Drew had always been so jealous of. "Because we've been hiking for hours"

The two of them continued up the hill for a few more minutes before finally cresting it, and when their eyes had adjusted to the light of the setting sun a discouraging site laid before them. There was no lake, no ruins, only a sea of trees that stretched farther than the eye could see taking up the horizon, and both of them just looked out over the hill top knowing full well that their journey was hopeless.

"Well, this sucks." Christian said as both of them sat down on the top of the hill.

Drew just un-holstered his 30 mm handgun and began cleaning it. Christian watched him for a while and once again wondered how this friendship started; they were both radically different in appearance with his own rounded face and Drew's angular one even down to the glasses they wore, Christian wore rounded lenses while Drew preferred small rectangular ones and yet they had been inseparable since they were 4. Now Drew, as he always seemed to do, have gotten both of them into trouble and the reactions were always the same. Drew calmly thought nothing of it while Christian panicked and eventually found a way out of it.

"What are our parents going to think? I mean we didn't exactly bankrupt ourselves flying here but it still wasn't a small amount of money especially now that we know it was

wasted."

"Yep."

"We were supposed to stay here two weeks and this is just our second day, which means if we really are lost it will take at least two weeks for people to wonder where we went and probably another week for people to come looking for us right?"

"Sounds about right," Christian had now agitated himself to pacing quickly back and forth across the hill "and we only brought enough granola bars, water and trail mix for the two day's we expected to be here and even if we had the equipment needed to clean the animals we hunt that pistol that you brought for absolutely no reason whatsoever has only six shots correct?"

"Well," Drew said once again holstering his pistol "as a woman once said in a movie shortly before an alien burst from her chest, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it"

Christian sighed finding it hard to argue with his logic and sat down again looking at the tree's blowing in the wind. After a while Drew broke the silence. "You know, from up here it kind of looks like home."

"Yeah except in Canada we never went off on some half cocked adventure hoping to be the first ones to find ancient ruins." Chris responded exasperated

"Just trying to lighten the mood" Drew grumbled rummaging through his pack "Granola bar?"

"Sure."

They both lay back with their heads on their packs eating granola bars until Drew suddenly sat up. "Do you  
hear that?"

Chris also sat up straining to hear what might be their salvation "Is that... whistling?"

"Yeah, let's go check it out!"

They stuffed the granola bars back into their packs and carried them down the hill. They followed the whistling until they had reached a small path that had been cut through the woods.

"Hey" Drew frowned "The whistling stopped."

"Who cares, this could lead us back to the city!"

"Yeah, but which way do we go?" They hadn't contemplated the problem for long when the whistling  
started up again this time they could see the source, a boy about their age  
was walking up the path twirling a staff with one hand while he had the other  
in his jacket pocket and whistling tunelessly completely oblivious to the  
other boy's presence.

"Maybe he can tell us, hey over here! Can you help us?"

"We need to know how to get back to town."

"Auuugghhh! So hungry!" Kurume groaned from the back of the line "I  
haven't eaten since this morning!"

It was true; none of the group had eaten since nine-o-clock that morning. It was now getting on to six and a group of monster teenagers that have missed both lunch and dinner is not a pretty sight by far.

Moka was probably the only one who was perfectly happy since she had her own mobile food supply "Maybe Noruas left to find us some food?"

"Find us some food? Ha!" Kurumu scoffed "Probably went on ahead to the  
coven leaving us here to die, alone cold and hungry!"

This was probably a little too dramatic even in the current situation but she refused to be alone in her suffering, then a thought struck her.

"Oh, Tsukune," she said swooning backwards into Tsukune's chest and wrapping her arm around the back of his head all but forcing him to view her ample bosom "I don't want to die a virgin."

This left poor blood deprived Tsukune flustered and fumbling for an  
answer but he wouldn't have to think of one thanks to a voice from above the  
group that saved him.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic" they all looked up to see Noruas sitting on a branch holding two backpacks.

"At least Ms. Akashiya had some faith in my good nature." He said dropping down into their midst and holding out the back packs "There is food and water inside; we may rest here while you eat."

To say that they ripped the backpacks from his hands and ravenously tore into their contents as only monsters could, would be an understatement. Tsukune was the only one who kept his head, unable to compete for the food anyway.

"Aren't you going to eat?" He asked Noruas who patted his belly.

"Thanks for offering, but no, I just ate"

Tsukune then noticed the maple leafs sewn into the backpacks pockets. "Where are the people who used to own these?" He demanded.

Noruas merely smiled. "Oh, here and there." He held out a tinfoil wrapped rectangle, "Granola bar?"

Authors note:

Sorry about not introducing the castle again but an idea struck me and I ran with it, thanks go out to my Beta reader who helped me tremendously although I hope our beta reading partnership will go a bit smoother from now on now that we've worked out the kinks.

One more thing....... Whoo! Go Canada! Ha! Fourteen gold medals! That's how we roll baby! Yeah!


	8. Revealing truths

"Well that's unfortunate"

said Noruas who was looking down the deep canyon they had happened upon, the chasm stretched beyond the horizon on either side, the depth was immeasurable reaching down towards an inky darkness and the distance across was an impossible jump. They were lucky to have reached it before sunset or they may have accidently trod into it. They all stood as close to the edge as they dare and looked down into its cavernous maw "Seems a little out of place doesn't it?"

"A little out of place?" Yukari spluttered "This is a geographical impossibility!" The entire class was awed and relieved by the sight knowing that moving forward would be impossible

"Well" Kurumu yawned "Looks like we'll have to go back" Noruas was still impossibly happy and said mischievously

"Couldn't you fly us all across Ms. Kurono?" he looked down at her an imposing head taller "After all, you are the only one who has the ability to do so correct?" She stopped mid yawn

"Well... I can't really..." Tsukune came to her rescue putting his hand on her shoulder

"She can't fly long distances especially with that kind of weight going back and forth, plus she's probably exhausted from walking all day." Noruas continued to smile and sighed

"Such a waste" he then turned back to the canyon "what I would do with wings" he mused to himself. Kurumu looked back at Tsukune and mouthed

"Thank you" Tsukune was also exhausted but he accepted the silent gratitude with a nod.

"Well" Noruas announced after merely a moment's pause "After much deliberation and a considerable amount of thought concerning our present situation, I believe we have only one option." By this time students had already began walking back down the path they had only just recently arrived through, having already guessed his one option "We must walk over it"

"WHAT!" The class body responded in unison, the outburst only seemed to egg him on

"It should be quite easy to just walk across don't you think? I mean look at it, I've **paced** deeper trenches"

"How in the hell do you suppose we do that" a voice from the crowd asked. Noruas ignored it

"Say, were did Ms. Sendo wander of to?" Tsukune blinked in surprise anger forgotten

"Yukari?" he turned around back towards the gap "Yukari!" Yukari was still standing next to the precipice, leaning over quite obviously fascinated, Tsukune ran over to her and pulled her back "You shouldn't be standing so close, you'll fall in!" still mesmerized by the wonder before her she murmured

"I wonder how far down it goes?" which was followed by a less innocent voice that was drenched in sadistic glee

"Why don't you find out?" Tsukune saw what was coming, time seemed to slow and he had just enough time thrust Yukari out of the way and turn to see the butt of a staff smash into his face forcing him to take a step back into the void that consumed him greedily.

"Tsukune!" Kurumu screamed and plunged in after him sprouting her leathery wings that had already begun flapping with a purpose before they were even fully emerged, but unexpectedly instead of seeing her destined one descending into a dark demise she saw him standing shakily and brushing himself off before she rather unceremoniously crashed headlong into him. Tsukune's breath was knocked from him as he was shoved back onto the ground he was so recently dumped, they both lay panting in a heap with Kurumu astride Tsukune's chest for a few moments until she finally spoke

"Are you alright?" this seemed appropriate considering that he was just pushed into a canyon.

"Yeah" he grunted "how about you?" her entire body was sore but there was a particularly throbbing pain in her left hand

"I-I think I broke my wrist" Tsukune moved to get up but found he was quite securely held in place

"Um… we should climb back up now" he urged

"No thanks" she said contentedly snuggling closer "This isn't entirely unpleasant" colour flooded Tsukune's face and he cleared his throat rather hastily

"b-but we should really have you're wrist looked at and climb out of here, the others are probably worried" Kurumu sighed but she rolled off him allowing him to stand up and help her to her feet, Tsukune looked up and saw they had only fell about fifteen feet, painful but better than the alternative. A sharp intake of breath caused him to turn around and he saw that Kurumu was cradling her limp hand "Here let me look at it" he offered. She looked at her hand then back at him before delicately extending her arm wincing

"Be gentle" he tenderly held her hand and examined it for any abnormalities even though he had limited medical knowledge she appreciated the gesture, but then his eyes flew open with a horrified look on his face. She quickly pulled back her hand "Is it bad?" she realized he wasn't looking at her hand but at the ground they stood on and when she followed his gaze she cried out and jumped into Tsukune's arms. There was no ground for them to stand on; there was just darkness and the canyon wall continuing downwards into the abyss, it was like standing on a sheet of glass.

"Lets get out of here" Tsukune growled, he called upon his vampire blood and with Kurumu still in his arms he leapt back up to the edge from which he was pushed.

***

"She's bringing him back… she has to" It had now been several minutes since Tsukune had been cast into the chasm and Kurumu had flown in to save him and still no one had flown back out. Moka was on her knees waiting near the edge, Mizore stood and Yukari lay were she was thrown apparently in shock.

"Wow" Noruas said with mock concern "He should really watch where he's going" This proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back as he was roughly pinned to a tree by Mizore her tear filmed blue eye's inches from his heavily scarred eye's. "What too soon?"

"Shut up" she said quietly but with a subtle menace

"Now is that really necessa - ulp! Whatever he was about to say was quickly cut off by an ice claw being pressed to his Adam's apple. Mizore was now the very image of her race, hair hanging in spikes framing an emotionless face and pupil-less blue eyes. Her voice almost literally frosted over

"Shut up", Noruas however was unimpressed and gingerly removed the claw from his jugular

"Oh come now, we both know he's fine, ghouls can survive far higher drops than that so it certainly wouldn't put down your little..." he seemed to mull over his choice of words before finally selecting "plaything". As soon as the words were out of his mouth a pink blur streaked towards him and Noruas found himself being held once again against a tree this time it shattered the wood sending birds flying from the branches, Moka it seemed, had found her vampire strength. "Gah! Again with the choking!"

"If she doesn't bring him back in the next five seconds" Moka said in an uncharacteristic tone of voice "I'm going to throw **you **in to go get them". Noruas smiled

"I'd hold you to it, but apparently" he gestured towards the cliff with his staff "their fine". Around 30 heads turned towards the cliffs edge hoping to see Kurume pulling Tsukune out onto the grass, the image they received however was quite the opposite with Tsukune standing before them in his ghoul form, red eye's glaring angrily at Noruas and holding Kurumu in his arms. The girls would have cried out were it not for the hatred and power he radiated from his body

"You" Tsukune hissed between clenched teeth "You did this" he walked towards Noruas, Moka and Mizore shocked by his wrath moved out of the way. Tsukune stopped in front of him then held out an uncomfortable looking Kurume "You" he repeated

"Me" Noruas said cheerfully

"You, because of you she hurt herself trying to save me, and now **you** are going to heal her." Noruas crossed his arms and leaned against the shattered tree

"and what makes you think I can?" he said with an amused air. Tsukune ground his teeth his patience with Noruas long since gone

"You can" he said slowly "because you told me you could when you healed us three weeks ago with your healing powers or whatever."

"Healing powers?" Noruas frowned and looked genuinely confused, and then understanding dawned on him

"Oh, yes I did tell you that didn't I? Well I lied; I tend to do that" he chuckled "Healing powers indeed" Now it was Tsukune's turn to be confused

"Well… then how did you…"

"Give you back your cranium and bring you back the rest of you sorry lot? I just happened to be generous enough to donate some of my blood. Like vampire blood the healing properties are similar, minus the turning into a mindless bloodthirsty monster part however intriguing the thought. As for the resulting exhaustion, that may have resulted from the anaesthetic that 'slipped' into your IV bags." He seemed extremely amused at the looks of horror and disgust painted on their faces "You know you guys are the most gullible bunch I have ever come across, next thing you know you'll think I can read minds or some such nonsense" Tsukune stood mouth agape

"You lied about that to?!" Noruas leaned in closer scrutinizing Tsukune's face

"Are you for real? There is no way you can be this stupid"

"b-but the bus driver"

"The bus driver was either humouring your ignorance or I had him fooled too, my knowledge on all you comes from some rather… detailed files courtesy of the headmaster and they provided more than enough information to accurately guess your mannerisms and personalities . Now if you don't mind I believe we have injured." He held out his hand towards Tsukune who put down Kurumu staring at the ground outraged beyond words, without warning Noruas shot out his hand and grabbed Kurumu by her forearm and pulling her closer and studying her wrist intently eliciting a yelp of pain from the succubus. Almost immediately he began to mutter quickly to himself and move his hands along the injured area, the group crowded around him leaning in to hear what he was saying. "Swelling around the carpals indicate sprain most likely resulting from lateral impact, no break, strangely fortunate, succubae bones are easily fractured due to being hollow to allow flight similar to other avian species. Pressure points to stun located between shoulder blades and center of pelvis, pressure points to kill nonexistent, treatment for sprain similar to humans." It sounded like he was reciting from a medical textbook and he was only focused on the wound before him the class looked at each other wearing confused looks, Noruas didn't seem like the one to have extensive medical knowledge. Suddenly Noruas stood up and tore a length of cloth from the arm of Mizore's sweater and then caught the resulting Icicle spike "Thank you" he said not taking his eye of Kurume's wrist. He placed the icicle in the cloth then wrapped it around her arm in a sling "First of all it's only a sprain if it was broken you'd know about it, I want you to avoid heat while it's still swollen, apply a wet warm cloth to it when the swelling subsides and once the pain decreases begin to exercise your wrist. All of that coupled with a monsters increased healing factor and you should be completely fine by tomorrow morning." His voice was bored and monotonous as if he had done this a hundred times before, which by the looks of things he may very well have. "As for you" he turned towards Tsukune curiosity coloring his voice but he wasn't talking to Tsukune he was examining his holy lock "Definitely a rush job I doubt that it's in perfect shape either. The bearer wouldn't be able to tap into his monster power at his own will if it was working properly, admittedly elegant design though." His hands moved slowly towards the lock but Tsukune pulled his hand away frowning, Noruas looked up at Tsukune as if noticing him for the first time then straightened up with a smirk "Notice anything unusual in the canyon?" The frown never left Tsukune's face but the crimson was beginning to leave his eye's

"The canyon is an illusion, it's actually only about twenty feet deep" Noruas shook his finger at him

"Tut tut Tsukune, there is no credit rewarded for partial answers." He turned towards the canyon with his arms outstretched and shouted "**It's all an illusion!**" startled birds flew up from the canyon walls and into the sky at the unexpected outburst, Noruas turned back to his audience "In fact everything on that side of this crevice is all fake, I wouldn't doubt if our destination is directly in front of us. However the illusion may be complicated but is weak and to break it we need only acknowledge its presence" he turned back and sang towards the fissure

"_This canyon is not deep, this canyon is not wide, without the barrier in place, the parasites have nowhere to hide." _At first nothing happened he just stood there looking rather foolish until a booming sound like shattering ice reverberated beyond the canyon and the air in front of them shimmered and began to lose focus. Images faded in and out, sometimes they could see a magnificent wall of stone and sometimes they would see a small wooden bridge. This continued on for about a minute until a spider web of cracks began to appear in thin air and the images became more frantic flashing faster and faster until it became dizzying to look at. Finally the flashing stopped and the cracks had formed a large dome over the section of now obviously fake forest but the barrier still stood however fragile. Noruas strode forward and placed his hand on the barrier, it quivered under his touch as if sensing its destruction, If Noruas noticed this he didn't show it, his grin never faltering as he pressed forward. The barrier shattered all at once raining down pieces of disjointed images onto the structure they only now noticed, the wall they had seen through the barrier now stood before them in all its glory it's colour had been dulled through the barrier but now they saw it was not made of stone but of the whitest marble. The canyon that had once appeared impassable now showed its true colours as a moat, a narrow ditch around the wall with a single wooden bridge leading across it. Noruas took a step back frowning "Huh. So it was a barrier." Tsukune turned slowly towards Noruas incredulous

"You mean you didn't know for sure?" Noruas shook his head "Not for sure no, not until I pushed you in and you didn't die." His grin returned tenfold "Then I knew for sure." Tsukune was just too exhausted to be outraged anymore so he just sighed wearily "That's the spirit!" Noruas said standing next to the bridge "now come along" Thwack! "Ladies first!"

***

In a keep on the wall overlooking the bridge a pair of armoured individuals decided the unwitting traveler's fate. They both wore silver amour and had equally silver, however one was quite clearly a woman while the other was a man, the man leaned over the edge of the window his crimson eye's blinking lazily at the intruders

"Definitely monsters but they don't look like they're of the aggressive persuasion" he turned resting his elbows on the window sill and watched his female counterpart check her equipment and weapons over again for the seventh time, she wasn't nervous she was eager. "We should really tell your mother" She stopped for a moment to glare at him before resuming her inspection

"We already discussed this she doesn't need to know" the man raised his hands in submission

"I know, I know, I'm just saying maybe just to be safe, we should at least get her to supervise. I'm just saying" She pointed one of her many weapons at him, her crimson glare continuing

"You will not interfere, you will not tell my mother and you will not. Call. For. Help." She emphasised each of her words with a poke in his breastplate, she sheathed her knife then jumped into a crouch on the window's ledge staring down on the intruders. She jerked her head back quickly in surprise hissing despite herself. "Have your senses been dulled with age? Did you not say they weren't aggressive?" The man sighed and looked over her shoulder

"What are you talking about, they're just tired not a single killing intent among…" he cut off quickly focusing his senses on the boy leading the travelers, the one with the staff "Whoa"

"Yeah"

"… That's a lot"

"You think?"

"Are you sure you don't want to?…"

"No!"

"Alright".

***

Authors Note: Sorry for the extremely long wait and for the last chapter being unfinished but I was in Italy the last few weeks and I only just got back so I was therefore unable to write. Anyway here's the finished chapter, I hopes it's satisfactory and I hope you think Noruas is as much of jerk with a capital JERK! As I try to make him out to be. Please point out any mistakes as I was a bit pressed for time when I wrote it


	9. Noruas, Shut up

Immediately after the students crossed the bridge the barrier became whole once again, the thousands of pieces drifted back towards the sky and knit themselves together again effectively sealing themselves inside.

"Huh" Noruas acknowledged "weak but resilient". The road to the wall was short but made of a flat sheet of marble that despite its suspected age showed no signs of weathering; along either side were also several marble statues of fierce vampiric figures from various timelines, all snarling down onto any who crossed their path. In the black of night the overall effect was rather intimidating and Tsukune felt his shoulders his left hand and his left and right arm become simultaneously gripped by the fearful embrace of his friends. Noruas was busy probing the wall, moving his hands along marble surface the looking for an imperfection or secret entrance but after a minute or two he took a step back to admire the stonework "Amazing" he marveled "A level of craftsmanship the like I have never seen, flawless, perfect almost to the point that I'd think it was also an illusion."

"Maybe we should bash your head against it to see if it's real, seems like a fair trade off considering you tossed Tsukune into the canyon to test your theory" Mizore responded as usual keeping her icy demeanor.

"Oh come on" Noruas sighed "that was like nine minutes ago, let it goooooo."

"Hey!" Kurumu had detached herself from Tsukune and was glaring at Noruas "What is that?" she said angrily pointing at the wide dusty path off to the side of and leading up to the wall, barely noticeable in the dark. Noruas looked at the path and then back at her

"That, my somewhat dimwitted succubus, is a road. We actually drove on one before we started walking." He said as if addressing a small child and smiling, to say the least the students were less than pleased, a young female Enenra yelled from the back

"You mean we could have drove all the way here?" Noruas pinched the bridge of his nose feigning exasperation

"You're all a bit a slow aren't you? Yes we could have been driven the entire way, but why drive when you can walk, it builds character"

"Builds character?" Kurumu shrieked "It destroyed my feet!" Of course than the whole group began to argue and yell at Noruas to which he retaliated with a smart ass remark blow for blow. No one however noticed a lone member of the group break off to examine the statues, Moka was never really one for fighting and she and inner Moka were intensely curious about the figures that represented their ancestral heritage. One statue in particular stood out from the rest, it was the closest to the wall and depicted a female vampire with long hair to her waist holding a naginata planted in the pedestal she was standing on in a proud stance. Her armor was reminiscent of both feudal Japan and medieval Europe with an almost ridiculous amount of knife hilts protruding from various areas within easy reach. The face which was both arrogant and proud reminded Moka of inner Moka, in fact… Moka gasped

"she looks almost just like you Ura-chan!" inner Moka huffed

"_There is some resemblance I suppose but she looks much to full of herself."_ Moka's resulting giggle by her inner self's suddenly defensive attitude quickly turned into a strangled cry when the statue began to move. It gripped the naginata in both of its hands and raised it slightly preparing for a horizontal sweep, the blade tip glistening in the moonlight. Despite the inner Moka yelling at her to flee Moka remained still, held in place by awe and fear, the statue brought the weapon down in a low arc putting Moka's head in the trajectory. Moka had just enough time to draw a ragged breath and close her eye's before the blade completed its path but it never made it that far. There was the explosive sound of metal on metal right next to Moka's left ear and when she opened her eye's she saw that the naginata had stopped just short of her head, so close that a small lock of hair had been cut away. A black mace had placed itself in its path about halfway up the handle being held in place by Noruas in his armor, he met the woman's eye's and shook his head. The statue was of course not a statue but a vampire; she snarled at Noruas and spun out of his reach and landing to face the group. Her eyes darted from one target to the next before she decided to use her naginata as a pole-vault to launch herself at the Enenra, the Enenra screamed and turned into smoke, dissipating before the vampire could hit her. The naginata impacted on the marble causing a small explosion striking the group with rocks and dust and leaving a large crater like hole. She retrieved her weapon with a jerk then returned to a fighting stance regarding the students with a scowl, a loud clang made her whip her head around and brought her gaze upon Noruas who had stomped to get her attention and was now motioning her towards him with two fingers oddly silent. The vampire dashed at him the blade of her naginata creating sparks as it dragged across the ground. In the meantime the students had huddled up against the wall and watched the fight, horrified,

"He… he saved me" Moka said somewhat shaken by her brush with death

"There's no way he did it out of the kindness of his heart" Mizore said with cold certainty "There must be something in it for him"

"Um… guy's?" Mizore and Moka turned to see the whole group staring up at the wall and when they followed their gaze they saw what had caught their attention. Well over a hundred silver haired figures had gathered on the wall and were watching the fight murmuring among themselves, seemingly unaware of the group of students. They were obviously vampires due to their extreme beauty and fluid grace in whatever small movement they made but their clothing ranged from casually human to the most eccentric of costumes. The sounds of battle brought the groups attentions back to the fight were Noruas was for lack of a better term, getting his ass handed to him. The vampire's movements were a complement to her race, her attacks flowing from one form to the next and deftly turning aside her opponent's clumsy blows as often as she bodily weaved under or around them. Noruas however was her contrast; his blows were mostly of the vertical or horizontal manner, his form revolving around the whole body moving one body part resulting in a ridiculous wind up delay for each attack. At least by vampire standards he was slow and lumbering but to Tsukune they were both a blur, Noruas was just a more easy blur to follow. Despite the varying degrees of skill neither opponent was gaining any ground, Noruas was proving to be unable to get past his opponents guard, while the vampire was able to land many blows against Noruas all of them skittered off of his plates in a rain of sparks that lit the night. The vampire it seemed was not willing to put up with the stalemate any longer, she leapt high into the air intending to end the competition with a single overhead strike. Noruas prepared his block, placing himself on his one knee, granting a stable position and he held his mace by either end in a horizontal stance, waiting to catch the brunt of the attack. His preparations proved ineffectual as she split his mace in two and planted the blade into the top of his head. She continued to hold the position until his arms fell loose at his sides and his mace returned to being a staff and clattered to the ground in separate pieces, scattered applause could be heard on the wall and even within the group from youkai academy. The vampire let out a short sigh of relief and tried to free her weapon from her enemy's skull but found that it was stuck fast, a sudden pain in her side brought her out of her attempts. She looked down and saw a black gauntleted fist with a blade protruding from its wrist and said blade up to its hilt in her flesh, her armor proven useless. A voice rang hollow from inside the black armor

"That was my favorite jacket" With that the armor began to split down the middle starting from where the naginata was embedded and moving down to his torso until finally it fell from him, turning back into the black hoodie he was always seen with and revealing Noruas in his true form. The vampire staggered back in surprise pulling the knife from her body even as the wound closed. Noruas stood holding the naginata that had supposedly ended his life but in truth had not caused him any real harm. His usual black hair was now a bright orange and red still laying flat on his head, but without his jacket he looked entirely different. In reality he was slender with no real muscle to speak of, that coupled with his six foot stature made him look like a gangly fourteeen year-old. A leathery many thonged whip lay coiled from his left shoulder to his right hip and he wore the hilt of a sword through a loop on his jeans. His skin was flawless without blemishes besides a single bite mark like scar that looked so recent that it was still red and two long bruises on his back. His usually scarred milky white eyes were replaced by two orbs of fire with the vertical pupils of a predator. When he smiled at the startled looks he was receiving his mouth stretched nearly from ear to ear revealing a row of pointed, obsidian black teeth, that looked out of place next to his elfin features and now prominently pointed ears. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs "It's been a while since I've fought out of my armor, should be entertaining" The female vampire unexpectedly screeched

"Demon!" and drew two long knives from both of her elbow guards while the vampires on the wall began to yell in outrage and shock. A single male vampire in similar armor to the female detached from the crowd and prepared to jump down onto the opposite side, the female vampire caught the movement and yelled at him "Damn you Jared! You promised!" He turned and smiled sympathetically

"Sorry Beatrice, but Balrogs were never mentioned in our agreement" he jumped over the side of the wall and out of sight. The now newly dubbed Beatrice screamed in frustration,

"So Beatrice is it?" Noruas said smugly she turned snarling towards Noruas "Beatrice Arnauld? Selene's daughter? Ha! You certainly didn't inherit her strength; I barely felt that last one." he said casting aside the Naginata. She hissed and charged but stopped short when he uncoiled the whip from his body and snapped it against the ground causing it to burst into flame, the multiple thongs crackling against the ground. Noruas went on the offensive whirling the whip around again and again forcing Beatrice to dance away from its fiery sting and sustaining multiple burns across her forearms and face. "Now to get inside your head, hmmm…" Noruas said while still forcing her away with the whip "Well since you're a vampire and a female vampire at that I think It would be safe to assume you're a feminist, so let's start with that." The whip finally caught her two knifes and they were yanked from her hands and landed in his and with a solid CLANK he bit the blade ends off both of them and dropped the hilts. He closed his eye's chewing thoughtfully until finally he swallowed and his eyes flew open in triumph "I've got one!" Beatrice pulled two more knifes from her shoulder plates and they both resumed their attack "A man runs over his wife with the car whose fault is it?" Noruas asked suddenly. Beatrice paid no attention, still trying to catch the end of the whip "Oh come on at least give it a try." Noruas pouted. Beatrice grunted with effort as she avoided his but she sighed and said extremely irritated

"I don't know but you're probably going to say it's the woman's fault for some reason." Noruas giggled gleefully, delighted that someone had taken up his verbal bait

"Not at all, it's definitely the mans fault, he shouldn't have been driving in the kitchen" This caused her to pause for a second insulted and angered which also caused her to receive a particularly nasty burn across the cheek. A vampire on the wall shouted "Don't let him know he's getting to you! Help's on the way!" Noruas was giggling madly now "it's much too late for that now! When does a woman have more than one brain cell?" Beatrice tried to ignore him but she was getting noticeably more aggressive and reckless in her attacks. "When she's pregnant!" Noruas said howling with laughter. Both his mental and physical assault continued until Beatrice was practically throwing herself at him in abandon causing more wounds than she could heal. "How many men does it take to open a beer? None, it should be open when she brings it to him. A man is sitting and watching TV, his wife comes out of the kitchen and starts yelling at him. What did the man do wrong? He made the chain too long." At this point most of the female members of the crowd were getting a bit red in the face and hissing curses and dark threats towards Noruas while cheering on Beatrice, however some of the males, despite themselves, couldn't help but chuckle. Noruas halted his assault and gave a grand bow towards the students and the spectators on the wall while Beatrice was catching her breath but a loud rumbling noise above him drew his attention to the sky. Dark clouds had begun to gather within the barrier, bolts of lightning streaked across the sky and rain dropped from the clouds in big fat drops. Noruas's smile faltered as he watched the drops touch his skin, sizzle than evaporate in clouds of steam from the heat of his body, eventually all that could be seen of Noruas was a cloud of steam. He whirled his whip in an arc, clearing the air but he was breathing heavily as if the rain was sapping his strength. Beatrice chose this moment to attack, lunging at Noruas who tried to fend her off with a flick of his whip but she caught the thongs wincing from the heat

"Ha! Got you now!" she said triumphantly.

"No" Noruas panted "Got you" The thongs of the whips turned into little fiery snakes, biting into her hand and wrist refusing to let go. Noruas began to spin entwining both Beatrice and him together front to back with Noruas at the back. Beatrice used her free hand to stab blindly at Noruas but to no avail as the knife became notched and useless against his skin, she continued to pull knife after knife from her armor and stabbing at him trying to find a weak spot but Noruas paid no attention. With his teeth he stripped her shoulder of all armor revealing the pale flesh beneath; Beatrice felt his hot breath on her bare skin and fearing the worst stabbed faster but Noruas seemed not to treasure such carnal delights, at least not the ones she was thinking of. He ran his hand across her skin "Ah, the other white meat" then with a sound like biting into an apple, he opened his mouth wide and bit into her shoulder. She screamed in agony as he pulled away with his prize, meeting little resistance from the tendons and muscle, he tilted his head back and let the meat slide down his throat before biting down again and again and again. With each bite Beatrice's screams became louder and her attacks became slowly weaker as Noruas ate her alive, but either by happy chance or fate, her last knife stabbed into one of his bruises and while it did not penetrate the skin it obviously caused great pain. Noruas raised his head to the sky and yelled in pain letting Beatrice go and retreating backwards with his whip, rubbing his shoulder blade tenderly. Beatrice was much worse off, her shoulder was completely decimated and her arm barely held on by a thread while her body tried feebly to reattach it, her blood making crimson flowers on the wet ground. Noruas groaned then straightened up and smiled at Beatrice coiling the now extinguished whip back around his body "Wow, your mother went so far as to far as to tamper with the barrier to buy her time to save you." He said smugly indicating the sky "She must really baby you" Beatrice chuckled weakly in the face of her death if not from Noruas than from blood loss. Noruas shrugged "doesn't matter now" he put his hand on his sword hilt and began to approach Beatrice but a woman jumped from the wall and landed right in front of him Noruas looked shocked for a second but regained his composure giving her his signature smile. "Ah, Selene it's been a whi" The woman struck out with her fist catching Noruas straight on the jaw knocking it back through the barrier into the forest. Noruas stood for a few seconds his eye's widening, his tongue lolling. He gurgled weakly clutching at the empty air that was his jaw, the woman winded up and kicked him in the stomach raising him three feet of the ground with a sound like popping balloons. The woman stood over his convulsing retching body, crimson eye's glowing

"Shut up"

Authors note:

First of all sorry if Tsukune and CO didn't get much screen time in this one, I wanted to get a few things out of the way first, Noruas being the main one and the introduction of Selene Beatrice and Jared three very important characters being the secondary objective. I promise the next chapter will give lots of screen time to the gang as Noruas will be… otherwise engaged. Thanks for reading and reviewing I couldn't have continued without you guys and please tell me if you spot any mistakes.


	10. Hell

"Ah, Selene it's been a whi" The woman struck out with her fist catching Noruas straight on the jaw knocking it back through the barrier into the forest. Noruas stood for a few seconds his eye's widening, his tongue lolling. He gurgled weakly clutching at the empty air that was his jaw; the woman winded up and kicked him in the stomach raising him three feet of the ground with a sound like popping balloons. The woman stood over his convulsing retching body, crimson eye's glowing

"Shut up"

Moka brought her hands over her mouth "My, god"

Tsukune had to swallow the rising bile in his throat, no matter who that happened to it was still disturbing. Noruas was now making horrible gurgling screams made all the more horrible by the lack of a lower jaw. Strangely enough he did not bleed, at least not blood, instead a golden thick liquid oozed from his wounds and pooling around his body like a puddle of honey.

The woman who had struck the deadly blows slowly backed away from the puddle and it became apparent why when the blood overflowed onto the grass on either side of the marble path and incinerated the greenery instantly leaving a growing patch of black ash. The woman stood and watched as Noruas's breaths became more ragged until they just became spasms in his chest and then finally with a final sigh he stopped breathing altogether. His body slowly relaxed and his head rolled to the one side facing Tsukune and the rest of the students, Yukari hid behind Moka's legs, he blinked one more time and his fiery eye's slowly faded into a dull grey.

And so, Noruas Kardrold died, killed by an old acquaintance and for once Noruas was unable to have the last word. Tsukune had fought several people, he may have attacked them with the intent of causing grievous injury but he had never killed anyone. He had faced the consequence of death for his actions even rushed headlong into it but in truth this was the first time he had seen death first hand and it unnerved him. Noruas was an unsavory character but he was so full of life always moving, talking, fighting but what remained of him now was hard to look at.

The woman turned, she wore her silver hair back in a bun with several strands rebelling against the restraint and hanging loose about her face. She wore only a trailing white night gown that had become nearly transparent due to the rain, it became clear she was wearing nothing else; Tsukune averted his eyes color touching his cheeks. Two more vampires' one male and one female armored from head to toe descended from the wall next to the woman; the female carried a blouse and offered it to the woman with a short bow and polite

"M'lady".

The woman quickly slipped on the blouse covering the worst of her exposure but the group was shocked that a vampires pride would allow them to bow or refer to someone as 'My lady'. In a synchronized motion the armored vampires drew their halberds and brought them to bear on the group of students. The women raised her hand and said sternly

"No, attend to my daughter first, take her to her quarters and make sure she doesn't leave."

She closed her eyes and sighed wearily "Raphael will be there shortly to help her, after that you may return to your posts." The guards remained where they were for maybe a fraction of a second the rain plinking against their armor before putting away their weapons with another

"M'lady" and moving to assist Beatrice. The guards had to bodily move her as she was reluctant to leave fighting back feebly and actually managing to break free long enough to spit on Noruas's body before they were able to jump back over the wall with her. The crowd of vampires on the wall saw fit to disperse at that moment, drifting of to the other side of the wall in small groups or alone, the excitement of the main event over and done with.

The woman who must have been Selene turned her attention on the group of soaking wet, ragged and shivering students. She looked over them with keen crimson eyes before addressing them in a confident almost regal tone

"What is your association with that creature" she said pointing at the corpse of Noruas "Speak quickly" Tsukune stepped forward

"We are his- ow!" Tsukune began but was cut short when Kurumu brought her foot down on his instep "Hey what was that for- mmpf!" an icy hand covered his mouth cutting him off again

"What he meant to say was" Mizore said "That this boy kidnapped us from Youkai academy and brought us here, we don't know why" she said in a surprisingly victimized voice compared to her regular monotone.

Tsukune realized the necessity of the ploy and fell silent which wasn't that hard considering Mizore was covering his mouth. Selene raised her eyebrow balancing on the knife edge of believing them or attacking them, the students did their best to look like kidnapped teenagers who just wanted to go home which was not so far from the reality of things and so was also not very difficult to pull off. Both parties held their breath waiting for the other to make a move, after a few moments the deciding factor came unexpectedly from Moka

"Aunt Selene?" she inquired cautiously stepping to the front of the crowd. Selene's eye's narrowed

"Moka? Moka Akashiya? What are you doing here? Where are your other sisters?" Her voice took on a dangerous edge "Did your father send you to spy on me?" she took a menacing step forward to which Moka took a step back, caught off guard by the sudden aggression and accusation "My father?" The inquiry was unable to be answered as the two armored vampires from before reappeared and knelt in front of Selene, the male spoke

"Beatrice has been returned to her quarters but Raphael insisted that we help him with the demon" Selene looked back at Noruas's corpse

"Is he aware that the demon is dead?" As if on cue a howl of despair sounded from the top of the wall

"No M'lady". A man garbed in the same black armor Noruas had been wearing leapt from the wall and slid on his knees next to Noruas's dead body, the blood didn't bother the armor. The man wrenched off his own helmet and raised his hands above the body shaking as if he was afraid to touch him. The particularly long canines and silver if somewhat unkempt revealed the man to be a vampire but his sunken eye's, hollow cheeks and unnaturally pale skin made him look gaunt, like he had been living in a cave. He sat like that for a long time before he finally spoke and when he did it was whisper quiet and full of grief

"Oh Selene, what have you done?" her reply was both deliberate and without regret

"I did what you should have done well over a thousand years ago" Raphael didn't reply he was quickly moving his hand over Noruas checking his pulse in several places even placing his uncovered head against Noruas's chest uncaring of the smoke curling from his face as it burned from the blood.

He sighed sadly and lifted his head, the burns already healing; he closed Noruas's eyes by dragging his fingers across the eyelids first horizontally then vertically. He knelt for a moment and bowed his head, before standing to face Selene tears forming in his eyes

"He may have been the last" he said accusingly. Selene made an imperious gesture

"Then the world is all the better for it" she pointed at the group of students "Tend to the living not the dead" Raphael brought his crimson eye's to bear on the students and began to shuffle towards them until he stood in front of Kurumu who shrank back holding her injured wrist away from the strange vampire. Raphael smiled sadly and extended his hand

"I will not hurt you child" The vampire moved to untie the knot that held the sling but he froze his eye's fixed on the knot "Did… did he do this?" he asked slowly. Kurumu didn't respond she just pursed her lips, violet eye's flashing; he nodded somberly then untied the knot. When he touched her wrist Kurumu winced instinctively but much to her surprise there was no pain and after only a quick examination he dropped her hand and said "your fine" although he kept the sling.

When Selene was satisfied with the results she snapped her fingers and pointed at Noruas

"Frida! Eirik!" she called at the guards who stood at attention "Help Raphael dispose of the body, I will take the 'students' to the guest house until I decide what to do with them." The armored vampires bowed and strode towards the body while Selene walked towards the wall and ran her hand along a section above her head. Were her skin touched the marble the wall disintegrated leaving a doorway that lead through the wall big enough for two people to walk abreast. Selene walked in and beckoned over her shoulder at the students to follow "This way. Now"

They didn't need to be asked twice, they quickly filed in after her, squeezing into the tunnel. Tsukune was able to cast one last look over his shoulder at Raphael kneeling beside Noruas's body while the two guards looked on impassively before he was forced to move with the press of bodies.

It was impossible to see inside the tunnel and the only thing they could hear was the panting breaths of those around them. They had been walking for about five minutes and they were beginning to wonder how wide this wall was when some of the more claustrophobic of the students began to panic and steadily quicken their pace, unfortunately panic is contagious and it wasn't long until the whole group was running at a dead sprint desperate to escape the enclosed space.

The students at the head of the pack finally reached the end of the tunnel but they stopped suddenly gaping at an unknown source the exit causing the students behind them to run headlong into them resulting in a heap of tangled limbs, Selene stood to the side of the mass of students and scowled unimpressed. When the stack of monsters righted themselves they nearly fell over again when they saw their current environment. It was still pouring rain but the fine sheets of mist, lightning and black clouds could not hide the enormous orb hanging in the sky. Suspended among the clouds was an immense multi-colored planet circumnavigated by a vertical ring, looking like an over-ripe Neptune. The landscape was made up of rolling hills covered by a green carpet of long grass and interspersed with clumps of trees and even large buildings of an unknown make were gathered in what looked like a small town in the distance, illuminated by the soft glow exuded by the planet.

Tsukune was in awe like the others but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had been here before, it wasn't until a large blue whale dipped in and out of the thunder clouds swimming through the air like it was water and serenading those below with its call that it finally came to him.

"This is paradise!" he gasped, remembering when the headmaster spirited him away with Ruby to train here with Belmont. Selene raised an eyebrow

"That is not the usual first response when seeing our home" Tsukune shook his head vigorously when he caught her meaning

"No, I mean that is what The headmaster calls it" She took a step towards him, Tsukune shivered and braced himself for the incoming impact but she merely grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. She studied his eye's intensely then rolled up his sleeve to look at the holy lock and to his surprise a smirk tugged at her mouth "I didn't think you had it in you Moka" she called, releasing Tsukune and walking to the distant buildings

"Keep your pet on a short leash and follow me, I have decided what is to be done with you" Tsukune frowned at being called someone's pet but was stunned to see that Moka was blushing

"Moka what did she mean?" Kurumu said in a sickly sweet tone as she placed a hand on Moka's left shoulder, followed shortly by a cold one on her right

"Yes, what have you done to him?"

"If Tsukune is to be anyone's pet he's going to be mine, Desu!" Moka was unable to answer with more than an 'eeep!' when Selene called to them

"We have arrived." When they looked up they saw it was true, what had looked to be a small town from afar was in reality a huge multi floored mansion with several smaller building erected in a semi-circle around it. They tried to look back at the wall they had just exited but it was just a long black line in the distance, but that was impossible they couldn't taken more than a few steps. "Distance works differently here" Selene said guessing their thoughts "You may stay in the guest house until tomorrow when I am able to contact Mikogami… er … your headmaster."

She began walking towards the wall and within a few heartbeats she was just a speck on the horizon. The group turned to look at the gigantic space she couldn't have meant this whole place is the guest house! They walked towards the mansion in hopes that they would be able to rest inside but they couldn't help but notice the surrounding buildings.

The buildings on the left where all spiraling columns, slabs of chiseled stone statues and reminiscent of ancient Greek architecture. They all seemed to be dedicated to relaxation from a massive library with hundreds of towering shelves of books seen through the windows, to a hot spring that was shaded by two oak trees, their branches interlocking to form a canopy to shield all potential occupants from the elements. Kurumu and Mizore noticed with a smile that the bath was mixed and many an evil plan took root in their heads should they be able to stay longer.

However the buildings to the right seemed to be made exclusively for physical exertion, including a several sets of ridiculously large weights and a gravel track for running. The rain began to pick up and several green puddles began to form around the mansion

"_Wait. Green?_" Moka thought to herself, she broke off from the group and knelt to examine the puddle and it smelt just like the rain… devils herb, the water was filled with devil's herb which explained why the rain wasn't treating her to a less than pleasant electrical shower. She had to admit though, she smiled and looked up at the clouds, it felt good to feel the rain on her skin for what had to have been the first time.

"Come on Moka its freezing!" she looked back to the mansion, Tsukune was holding the door open for her

"Coming!" she called and ran to catch up with her friends.

"Oh my god this is awesome!" Kurumu yelled all exhaustion forgotten as she beheld the contents of the mansion; a satisfying echo resounded back at them due to the extreme size of their accommodations. The mansion was for lack of a better term… Ginormous. The entrance opened up to a huge circular concave hall with a spiral staircase going up through the center that lead up to unseen floors above. The hall was mostly empty but had several doors each uniquely different, from sliding paper doors to oaken double doors with brass rings for handles and even in one case red silk drapes, bags were left at the door and so began exploration of 'the guest house'. The students broke into their own groups and moved to different part of the mansion, until only Tsukune and Co. were left standing in the door way.

Almost immediately after they were left alone a musical tone sounded from Yukari's wand which she flicked once making a small pink cell phone with a miniature crystal ball on the end of the antenna appear out of the air. "What's the matter?" Kurumu snickered "Crystal balls go out of fashion?" Yukari stuck her tongue out but flicked open the phone and held it up to her ear

"Hello? Desu… Mom! I… I can't hear you" she began to walk upstairs, perhaps to get a better reception , but they were able to discern the last bit of the conversation before she went up out of sight "What do you mean 'how is the museum'? We never went to a museum. Desu!"

"Well that explains why our parents signed permission slips for us to go to a vampire coven; they didn't even know where we were going, Noruas fooled all of us to the end" Kurumu deducted perceptive as ever.

"Anybody else notice that we're all soaked and in serious need of a change of clothes?" Mizore said getting straight to the point. Mizore of course was right, they were making there own little green puddles on the floor from their wet clothes, and Mizore's sleeve was torn from its use as a sling along with everyone else's school clothes that had been shredded from their walk in the woods. Kurumu raised her hand

"I volunteer myself and Tsukune to go look for a bath and a place to change clothes" she said threading her arm through Tsukune's. Mizore scowled and grabbed Tsukune's other arm

"I'll go with Tsukune, we'll be able to get their much faster without the extra baggage" she emphasized with a prod to the Succubus's chest. Tsukune released his arms and backed up to the door, hands raised submissively

"Hey, how about you two go find the room and I'll stay here and umm… guard the bags." He reasoned. Kurumu and Mizore cast a single glance at one another then returned their eye's to Tsukune

"Fine" Kurumu announced "but Moka comes with us". Tsukune was about to protest but Moka stepped forward and smiled in a peacekeeping fashion

"Sure I'll go" but before Moka or Mizore could react she had already chomped onto Tsukune's neck and was sucking his blood. She had had her fill before Mizore and Kurumu were able to drag her off with her between them, she was able to yell "We'll be back soon Tsukune!" before their footsteps faded off into silence.

Tsukune leaned against a window, a little weak from blood loss and rubbed his neck wondering if one of these days he was going to go into cardiac arrest. He noticed something on the window frame, there were flickering words flashing back and forth between green and blue, he leaned in closer to read the words. From what he could see, the words were flashing either a green

**Elysium**

Or a blue

**Valhalla**

Tsukune didn't know what those words were supposed to mean but the soft blue and green glow brought him comfort.

He saw a small movement outside so adjusted his position to look out the window, Selene stood in front of the two armored vampires from before 'Frida' and 'Eirik'. Selene was pointing at the doorway and saying something that could not be heard through the glass and the occasional rumble of thunder but Tsukune quickly ascertained that they were being ordered to guard the doors to make sure that their guests didn't escape when Selene stopped talking and Frida and Eirik saluted and took up positions on either side of the door. Selene nodded satisfied then ran back out of the grounds, once Selene was out of sight Eirik relaxed, set aside his halberd and sat down on the doorstep with his hands behind his head. Frida didn't relax exactly but she also laid aside her halberd then proceeded to the weights Tsukune had noticed earlier and started working the bench press.

"Vampire security" Tsukune thought absentmindedly "is a little unreliable"

Almost as soon as he thought this Eirik jumped up from his sitting position and gestured wildly at the horizon. Frida put down the weights and followed his gaze, when she was looking at the object of his sudden interest she jumped up, ran to get her halberd and sprinted out of the mansion followed shortly by Eirik. Tsukune looked at the horizon for himself and saw a harsh red glow, growing steadily larger in the distance. He had seen something similar before when he was a child, it was when protestors in Tokyo had set fire to a nearby forest, and the resulting blaze killed hundreds of people.

Something was burning.

Another red glow brought his attention back to the window sill, gone was the soft green and blue letters from before, they were now replaced with harsh red letters

**Tartarus **

**Niflheim**

**Hell**

Tsukune understood the last one perfectly and a cold lump of fear and dread fell into his stomach, it was then that he noticed the sound. He hadn't heard it before because of the thunder but it was getting steadily louder *thump**thump**thump**thump**thump* It was coming from up the stairs working steadily downwards; it wasn't long before he saw what was making the noise. Yukari's body was rolling down the stairs with a bone crunching thud each time she connected with the ground; she finally came to rest facedown at Tsukune's feet her body laid out in an unnatural angle.

Tsukune cried out and quickly bent down and rolled her gently face up, she was still breathing but there was blood leaking out the side of her mouth and from a cut on her forehead and it was obvious she needed immediate help.

"She should really watch where she's going" a cruel, smooth voice drifted from the stairs, Tsukune looked up and saw a boy wearing only tattered jeans sitting on the banister and carrying one half of a wooden staff in his right hand while his left drew fiery patterns in the wood he was sitting on.

"You!" Tsukune said horrified, picking up Yukari's body and getting ready to bolt "Your supposed to be dead!"

"Really?" the boy said sardonically, checking himself over then looking back up, smiling with pointed black teeth "Death becomes me."

Authors note: TBA


	11. Mercy

"You!" Tsukune said horrified, picking up Yukari's body and getting ready to bolt "Your supposed to be dead!"

"Really?" the boy said sardonically, checking himself over then looking back up, smiling with pointed black teeth "Death becomes me."

…

The boy had ran, he was smarter than he looked. Noruas winced and hopped off the banister onto the hardwood floor which creaked in protest. Noruas raised an eyebrow and noted that he was already gaining weight, he winced again, even the smallest of movements brought waves of pain upon him, like his skin was about to tear off his body.

It had nothing to do with his death only hours before, he knew that it was preparation for his ascension into adulthood; he was an exceptionally deadly cocoon. He laughed at the thought and was about to take off after Tsukune when the smell of burning wood distracted him. He lifted his bare feet and saw he was leaving black footprints in the floor, he snorted in disgust; he was not some newly fledged youngling unable to control his bodily functions.

He knew the final hours in his adolescent body would be difficult and he would need to compensate for his constant loss of heat so he decided to alter his course and postpone chasing after Tsukune in favor of softer targets. "Don't worry Tsukune" he said over his shoulder "There will be a time for us" he laughed darkly and then quietly made his way towards the rest of the students.

…

"This is just what I needed!" Kurumu cried out, reveling in the cleanliness and heat the shower was giving.

"Your very vocal today aren't you" Mizore replied nonchalantly to her right, scrubbing shampoo into her own violet hair.

"Why shouldn't I be?" she asked turning off her side of the shower and reaching for a towel "There's no Noruas to kill us just for fun or drag us through a forest"

"Don't forget pushing us off a cliff" Mizore said also turning off her side of the shower. Kurumu scowled and absentmindedly rolled her wrist, but she was determined to forget everything about the last couple of hours so she proceeded to towel off her hair and changed the subject.

"Can you believe this place? I don't know about you, but I am definitely not going to sleep tonight. I mean did you see the places we walked past? There was a theater! A whole theater with a huge TV complete with DVD library and more game systems than I could count. Just look at the room were in!"

Mizore sighed in annoyance at her somewhat over eager comrade but was forced to agree, this whole place was for lack of a better term awesome. After some searching they had finally stumbled upon what could have been a room in a six star hotel complete with kitchen, Jacuzzi, washer and dryer and various recreational areas. However there was a surprisingly small amount of beds, whether this was intentional remained to be seen after all vampires were known for more than just violence. Moka blushed profusely when she brought up where Tsukune was going to sleep and Kurumu and Mizore smiled devilishly. Even the shower room they were in at the moment was lavish, the ceiling was perforated with small holes that when prompted brought forth a rain of devils herb infused water. The hot water proved to not be a problem with our cold preferring snow woman as the room was divided into hot and cold sections.

Eventually Mizore and Kurume left the shower room and returned to the bedroom which of course was also very extravagant, the room itself was very large with crème colored wallpaper and a large king-sized bed draped with red silk curtains and red rose petals showered upon the pillows and sheets, it was very obvious the bedroom was not meant to be slept in. Moka was sitting in a chair, wearing a pink bath robe and blow-drying her hair in front of a well endowed vanity. When Mizore and Kurumu entered they also donned similarly colored bath robes, Moka relinquished the hair dryer to Kurumu while Mizore was able to simply whisk the moisture away. Of course they felt somewhat guilty for taking advantage of using there rooms facilities before telling Tsukune but he would just have to forgive them, Hell hath no fury like a woman in need of a shower.

Eventually there guilt got the better of them and they decided to retrieve Tsukune, Mizore was about to put her hand on the door leading to the entrance halls handle when she heard fast approaching heavy set footsteps outside, she pressed her ear against the door.

"What's the matter, we need to go get Tsu…" Moka began but was cut off when Mizore raised her hand, head still pressed against the door, suddenly her eye's widened and she quickly sidestepped as the door splintered inward pelting the trio with slivers of wood. On the other side of the door stood Tsukune with his right leg extended as a result of his impromptu 'This is Sparta' kick, in his arms was Yukari her head lolled and was bleeding from a cut on her forehead.

Imagine the girls surprise when he offered no explanation but instead sprinted to the kitchen, swept the kitchen implements from the dining room table, placed Yukari tenderly on the table, then began to move large pieces of furniture in front of the doorway. At first the girls were too shocked to intervene but eventually Tsukune ran out of immediate furniture and stood panting against his do-it-yourself barricade, his eyes were closed. Moka carefully approached, maneuvering her bare feet through the wood shards, she slowly reached her hand toward him and placed it on his cheek.

"Tsukune?" she inquired in a whisper, his eyelids opened slowly revealing irises that shifted spastically from brown to crimson. His lips parted and it took only two words spoken in a tone that could only be truth and a loud scream in the distance to shatter their reality

"He's alive".

…

Noruas moved quickly throughout the mansion finding pockets of students and eliminating them in silence, however due to an error of his own he alerted a student to his presence and that particular student happened to be a banshee. As the student opened her mouth and released a bone chilling scream Noruas froze, he didn't have time to wonder what gave away his position he leapt from the ceiling onto the student knocking them both to the floor. In any other situation he would have silenced her in the quickest way possible, after all the quickest way to a girl's heart is between the ribs with a slim blade but he needed the students alive…for the moment. So instead he used his left hand to try and stifle the screaming while he placed his right hand on her chest. Almost immediately the wail lowered in volume, the students fingers curled inwards and she hugged her arms and legs to her chest until finally the student lay in a fetal position and was silent.

Noruas released the flow of energy and stood up, he had left enough heat in her body to keep her heart beating but she was definitely not going anywhere, his hands had left her with second and third degree burns on her face and arms but those were acceptable losses. He went over a mental list of students he had brought along on his little field trip and was satisfied that only Tsukune and his harem remained. He assessed his condition and determined that he had gathered enough energy from the students to grant him enough time to toy with Tsukune; he wanted his last day as a juvenile to be thoroughly enjoyable.

He took a step backwards into a shadow cast by table onto the wall and the darkness enveloped him and Noruas disappeared, the drain from shadow walking was more noticeable but this was to be expected as his ability to do so was coming to a close. Noruas entered one of the infinite doorway's that lay inside of the shadow and found himself looking down on Tsukune who looked rather pale, he was no doubt inside of a shadow that was being cast by a light fixture or chandelier. The scene below him was one of momentary shock on the knife edge of panic and he decided to help it along a little and even he was surprised at the voice he was able too produce.

…

Everyone was silent as the scream echoed throughout the halls even after it was suddenly silenced the sound reverberated inside their heads, such was the power of a banshee's scream. Even after the echo ended they remained where they were, rooted in place by the enormity of what had just happened and the potential repercussions that went along with it. Eventually Moka whispered her voice on the verge of breaking

"We saw him die."

"**Yo**_u_ _wa_**tch**_ed m_**e di**_e_!" A horribly distorted voice roared in reply coming from everywhere and nowhere, the group jumped at the sudden noise and flattened themselves against the wall next to the door, eye's darting from corner to corner. _"Ev_**en th**_oug_**h** **I** **w**_as t_**he o**_nly_ **thi**_ng s_**tan**_din_**g be**_twe_**en y**_ou a_**nd a** _cov_**en f**_ull_ **of v**_amp_**ire**_s, yo_**u wa**_tch_**ed t**_he l_**ife** _dra_**in f**_rom_ **me a**_s I l_**ay d**_yin_**g an**_d yo_**u fa**_iled to_ **lif**_**t ev**_**en a** _fin_**ger** _to h_**elp** _me._ **Wha**_t a_ **bun**_ch __**o**_**f cow**_ardl_y**, mis**_erab_**le, w**_retc_**hes** _I end_**ed up** _with!" _Mizore, as usual, had a trained eye for hiding spots and so was the one who noticed that a certain shadow on the ceiling had taken on a slightly darker shade.

She motioned silently with her hand at the shadow and Tsukune nodded getting the message, Noruas continued to monologue apparently oblivious to his location being found out. Tsukune edged slowly to the barricade "_and_ **to t**_hin_**k!**" he continued "_I onc_**e th**_oug_**ht t**_hat y_**ou w**_oul_**d be** _wor_**thy** _foe_**s** **bu**_t no_, **you** _end_**ed u**_p…" _ SMASH! Noruas noticed a bit too late that Tsukune had seized the edge of a wooden coffee table and thrown it at the shadow, where it connected and smashed into tiny pieces and fell to the floor.

The shadow that was Noruas fell silent; the only thing that could be heard was Tsukune's ragged breathing and the sound of creaking wood from the barricade. Eventually a voice, deathly quite called down to them from the shadow "Getting a little thirsty are we?" Of course most eye's turned to Moka but Moka was not the object of this game, Moka was staring at Tsukune and to everyone's surprise backing away. Tsukune was now on all fours, his tendons in his neck stood out in sharp relief from some immense invisible effort and when he slowly turned his head to look at them his face was set in a grimace.

That was not the reason Moka was backing away, it was because half of his head was covered in silver hair that was quickly spreading along his scalp along with oversized incisors that were pushing their way out of his gums. When the transformation was complete Tsukune gasped and fell forward, his shirt soaked through with sweat. Kurumu dashed at him but Moka stopped her, grabbing her by her arm

"What are you doing?" Kurumu said nearly in tears and straining against the grip that held her "We need to help him!" Moka turned her forcefully so they were eye to eye and Kurumu saw that Moka was also crying

"That's not Tsukune" she said adamantly her voice wavering little "He's doing the best he can but eventually he'll… he'll" she finally choked on that last word but it was unnecessary, Kurumu had caught her meaning. Tsukune was just barely holding on to the lifeline that was his humanity before the newborn thirst took hold and he would be helpless as he attacked his friends. "That's impossible" Mizore whispered in disbelief "The holy lock-" but even as she said it they heard a loud 'chink' as the holy lock fell from his hand, all of the many rosaries inlaid in the chain were cracked and when it finally met the ground it burst leaving nothing but dust.

With the final boundary of his potential release overcome his breathing slowed and his body relaxed. With a slow grace that only a vampire could achieve he pushed himself up onto his feet, this was done gradually and all the while his impassive crimson gaze was fixed on the girls in front of him. He finally stood and the result of his transformation became apparent, it was like an artist had went at all of his human features with a paintbrush and enhanced them, sharpened them into the beauty of a vampire. Despite the imminent danger they were in the trio of female monsters found they were unable to breath, it was only when Tsukune took a lurching and strangely ungraceful step towards them that they snapped out of their stupor.

The grimace returned to Tsukune lips, he was still fighting the inescapable thirst but from the longing in his eye's they knew he wouldn't last long. Mizore was the first to take the initiative

"I'll get Yukari" she said quickly and began running to the kitchen and adding over her shoulder "You guy's find a place to hide" Reluctant to leave their friend behind but seeing that they had little choice, Kurumu and Moka ran to the bedroom, leaving Tsukune standing in front of the doorway to fight his own personal battle.

…

Mizore was trying to be as level headed as possible considering the situation, Tsukune had for the moment and for no apparent reason turned into a full fledged vampire in an instant, which would send him on a killing spree at any moment. The only thing that kept her from breaking down completely was the thought that eventually he would return to normal, caring, lighthearted Tsukune, still a vampire but still Tsukune. The thought that kept her in tears however was the thought that he would most likely take one of their lives to achieve this. She quickly entered the kitchen and there was Yukari, still lying on the table Tsukune had placed her on, when she confirmed Yukari was there she checked over her shoulder to make sure Tsukune hadn't followed her. She turned back to the kitchen table to pick up Yukari, but Yukari's body was gone, it was at this time that the storm raging outside made it's presence known, unleashing a peal of thunder and lightning, causing the lights to flicker once and die.

Mizore gasped in fear and backed up against the kitchen wall, a powerful blow to her abdomen caused the candy to fly from her mouth along with a line of blood and forced her to her knees coughing. A hand grasped a fistful of her violet hair and pulled her head up sharply, a smooth a voice called down to her from behind the hand

"Ding-dong the witch is dead!" The hand pulled back farther forcing her up and eliciting a groan from the snow woman "Did you forget about me already? All caught up in the excitement? I'm just as curious as you are as to Mr. Aono's current predicament but you should really remember who the real threat is." The hand pulled back even farther and Mizore's ability to scream was neutralized as she was too busy trying to breathe "Just a few more inches and we shall both be treated to a delicious symphony of cracking vertebrae" He closed his eye's and inhaled sharply only to release the breath a second later "Unfortunately I need you alive… for now. Don't worry they'll be plenty of time for screaming later when I kill Mr. Aono"

He clamped his free hand over her mouth and began pulling her back into the shadows, to her credit she was able to fire several ice shards from underneath her sleeves in an attempt to at the very least wound her attacker but they all impacted harmlessly in the roof and tiled floor. All she could do was s thrash as much as he would allow until darkness enveloped them both.

…

Noruas reemerged from the shadow into the kitchen, minus the baggage he went inside it with. He dusted off the sorry remains of his jeans and then surveyed the area with his hands on his hips, he had abandoned the staff back where he kept the unconscious students, dismissing it as a broken heirloom but he knew that was a lie and it hurt to let it go. After all it was the only thing he had left of… him. He shook his head vigorously, now was not the time to dwell on such things, he had a vampire to kill, a newborn exceptionally powerful vampire he noted grimly. He unsheathed the curved, black knife he kept in the pocket of his jeans and moved quietly towards the hall where Tsukune was still struggling with his newfound thirst. Tsukune was still standing where he was when Noruas found him and he smiled to himself as he approached him from behind, raising his knife to eyelevel in a reverse grip like he was taught.

Oh how easy it would be to lure the rest of the girls out of hiding when he told them of how Tsukune had died in a puddle of his own blood. He could even spice it up saying how he called out to them as he lay dying, how he reached towards them before the light faded from his eyes. He giggled inwardly and placed himself behind Tsukune, taking the time to analyze the exact spot where the stroke will fall. Before he raised the knife he realized with some small discomfort that he pitied the creature that had been Tsukune, he had been lured by the most seductive of enchantresses into giving up what he was born into. However small his life had been before he was lured into their clutches, surely it had been better than being turned into that which stood before him. Noruas shook his head in disgust, what he was doing was a mercy killing, he was doing the boy a kindness, he even found it in himself to place his hand on the boy's shoulder as he brought the knife level with the base of his skull.

That didn't mean however that he wouldn't enjoy eating the boy afterwards, he thought with a smile as he thrust the knife forward. What should have passed through flesh just as easily as it would rice paper met unexpected resistance; Noruas frowned in confusion and looked at his hand. Pale fingers held his wrist in place in an iron like grip, preventing the killing blow from meeting its target which had also moved from sight. Noruas turned his head to the side and he recoiled at the crimson stare he received. Tsukune, it seemed had found an outlet for his thirst. Noruas may have retaliated immediately but the way Tsukune glared at him gave him pause "Now Tsukune" he said in a now somewhat less confident voice "Be reasonable"

Authors note: I'm really sorry about the short chapters, to be honest the last three chapters were supposed to be one big mega chapter at least by my standards. But unfortunately due to some plot problems I encountered I was forced to split it up to by myself some time to think. On a lighter note I have finally devised a punishment for Noruas to live with and I think it's definitely appropriate and I hope you like it as much as he dislikes it.


	12. Come wind, come wrack

_Earlier that night_

…

The blood like liquid honey, oozed from the mouth of what had been Noruas and it continued its journey unhindered by the pouring rain and the cold wind. The golden pool had already made its way to the surrounding greenery, leaving a swath of blackened and charred grass in its wake. The only three left to observe this phenomenon were three vampires, two, one male and one female were clad in elegant plate armor that shone as silver as the hair bound beneath their helmets. While the third wore armor as black as night and looked as if it had been hewn from volcanic rock in sharp contrast with his hair that was as equally silver as his companions.

The two silver figures looked on impassively while the one in black lay on his knees in front of the corpse, his gaunt face grief stricken.

"Sir?" the taller male implored, in a rigid military voice although still seemingly youthful, one could never tell with vampires. The grieving vampire did not turn to face them but his response was barely more than a hoarse whisper

"Thank you for your services Eirik, Freida, but your help is not necessary" Eirik shifted uncomfortably

"But sir, Selene ordered us to…" Raphael slowly got to his feet and turned to face the two younger vampires and despite themselves the look he gave them made them take a sudden interest in their boots.

"Does it look like I give a damn what Selene orders?" The two remained silent "I thought not, now if you feel the need for to further your own careers from brown-nosing Selene than feel free to guard the children in the guest house, I'm sure she'll be more than impressed."

Freida said nothing but made to take a step towards Raphael both of her hands on her halberd but Eirik put a hand on her arm and shook his head slowly. Freida looked at Eirik than back at Raphael, she inclined her head slightly before jumping over the imposing marble wall that lay behind them and Eirik made a short bow then followed. Raphael watched them go, his posture still aggressive and his jaw still set in a snarl, he didn't like fooling them but it was necessary for what must be done.

He resumed his previous position of lying on his knees next to the corpse looking to the entire world as if he was an old fool weeping over a boy he barely knew. Only the latter was true, he did not know Noruas in life, only now in death had he seen the boy, but he had known his father, the sins of which passed down to his son along with his responsibilities, debts, oaths, and worldly possessions. Now only a single oath remained to be fulfilled and if the father was unable to carry out the oath on his death than the son would have to fulfill it in life.

Raphael stood quickly as a thought struck him, a way for the son to fulfill the oath bound in his blood. He picked up the remains of the boy's jacket and rummaged in its pockets until he had found what he had been looking for, a small vial half-full of a thick rust colored liquid. He uncorked the vial and swiftly removed his gauntlet, casting it somewhere unimportant before biting into the back of his hand, letting the blood flow freely from the wound. He maneuvered his hand over the bottle, carefully letting a single drop fall into the mixture before jerking it back. By the time he had ran back to Noruas, a movement that a human would have missed, his hand had already healed. He bent over and filled the rest of the vial with the golden blood of Noruas before placing the cork back in the vial and waiting for what he hoped would be a miracle.

For a while the golden blood sat on top of the mixture, repelling itself from contact like oil on water but after a minute of waiting that felt more like years the golden blood gently settled in with the mixture and with the speed of a flash fire consumed it until the entire vial was filled with it. The old vampire's eye's gleamed with triumph but he had no time to savor it, he removed the cork once again and tipped the contents into the ruined mouth of Noruas, making sure each drop left the vial, making sure nothing was wasted in this effort. As soon as the vial was empty he crushed it to a fine powder in his fist and then let the wind and rain carry the dust to locations unknown, no one must ever know about what transpired here tonight.

He turned his attention back to Noruas and the change he had been so desperately looking for was immediate. His eyes shot open and the fires contained within them ignited, his back arched into the air as his hands scrabbled at the wet flagstones beneath him, the sounds of snapping bones was the most prevalent sound in the air but not snapping in two, snapping in place. Two white shards of bone emerged from what remained of his cheeks and connected to form a rough U shape, black teeth emerged from the white bone followed shortly by skin that encompassed both. As soon as his jaw had been re-grown he screamed, screamed like he was being burned in the core of the Earth only to have his charred remains torn apart by wolves' unable to die, unable to be free of the pain. It was like looking at a regular healing process in fast forward, twisted limbs straightened, collapsed organs re-inflated and skin stitched itself together.

Even after the healing was seemingly done he continued to scream until it reached a pitch akin to a whistling tea kettle but at the octave level of a jet taking off. Raphael clutched at his ears, he had forgotten about this part, he pulled one of his hands away and brought it in front of his face, and he wasn't the least bit surprised to find it slick with his own blood. The screaming continued and Raphael was on the verge of blacking out when as suddenly as it started the screaming stopped.

Raphael collapsed and was already able to feel his vampire healing factor repairing his destroyed ear drums when he felt himself being hoisted from the ground until he was eyelevel with a wild black grin.

"And to whom do I owe the pleasure?" Noruas said panting hard. Raphael looked up at Noruas and much to Noruas's surprise he had a broad smile on his face and tears of joy were running down his cheeks mixing with the falling rain. When Raphael answered he spoke in a tongue that was made up of deep rumbles and sharp whistling hisses that many creatures would find unpronounceable, he spoke it haltingly and it was clear he had not spoken that language in a long time.

"_Fekiikiri jaci svaust zhin persvek thurkear_." At this Noruas was visibly taken aback, he set Raphael on his feet and took a step back to examine him with an amused look on his face before responding in a much more flowing and natural sentence

"_Fekiikiri jaci svaust renthisjic hesi ooble algbo ihk vi hemata_." Noruas threw his head back and laughed partly from the after effects of the adrenaline rush he had just received and partly from the ridiculousness of their situation. "Tell me your name vampire so I may mark your grave site after I kill you and depart; you deserve that much at least." Raphael's smile faded into a weary expression of both regret and sorrow. He made his way to the remains of Noruas's cleaved staff and picked up both of the pieces holding them in his arms like a child.

"I am here to help settle the blood oath your father made to kill the Shuzen line." A look of shock passed over Noruas's face which was quickly overtaken by a snarl of anger; he rushed towards Raphael and tackled him to the ground so that Noruas was holding Raphael face first into the ground with his one hand while the other held his arm in a painful hold. Raphael made no attempt to stop him; in fact he looked sympathetic

"Noruas"

"Shut up!"

"Don't you feel it? The compulsion to harm, to hurt, to kill Shuzen's blood or any vampire you come across. Don't you feel the hate of a million year grudge every time you set your sights on one of my kind?" Noruas growled threateningly and drove the vampires arm further up causing Raphael to wince

"I hate them" he announced to no one in particular "I hate them all, they come across their incredible godly power in an instant, while I had to wait years too be able to even stand toe to toe with the weakest of them." His face twisted into a cruel smile "They're so damn smug, lounging around their lavish palaces and castles waiting for the next fool of a monster to think themselves equals, never having to hone their ever sharp skills and abilities. But if they are like the flower that blooms after a week of growth and is full grown immediately, than I am like the tree that after hundreds of years shall dwarf the flower and remain standing for generations to come."

He flexed the muscles in his arms and back to prove his point. Raphael remained calm throughout Noruas's poetic outburst and spoke to him in a soothing tone

"But surely you have noticed something different this time? Some change that is soon in coming?" Noruas thought for a moment but did not loosen his grip.

"Yes… yes I have felt something, every year since my birth I have felt myself growing stronger little by little but today it feels like I'm over full, like my skin is splitting at it's seams." Raphael felt secure in his position so he decided to delve into slightly more dangerous territory

"Noruas?" he asked slowly "How old are you?" Noruas pondered the question for a moment, he had no idea why he was spilling his guts to a vampire he had only met but he could see no harm in humoring him

"Hmm, it has been a very long time since I have kept count of the summers I have endured but I can still remember… as of midnight tonight I shall be one-thousand years old so at the moment I am nine hundred and ninety nine years old" Noruas shook his head quickly from side to side, since when had he referred to years as summers? And since when had he burst into analogies? Raphael sighed

"I know of what ails you my young Balrog; you are coming of age" At his Noruas was barely able to suppress a chuckle "Coming of age? Ha! I haven't changed in the past nine hundred years why would I change now?"

"Please let me up and I can explain everything" Noruas raised an eyebrow, his prey had begged and bargained for their lives before, they would do anything to extend their existence and fortunately for Raphael he very rarely tired of it. He removed himself slowly from Raphael and the vampire stood brushing grass from his hair. Noruas picked up the fallen staff pieces and crossed his arms

"Well? Let's have it then." Noruas said with an amused look on his face. The vampire opened his mouth to speak but shut it again, perhaps it would be better to warn the boy first.

"You may not like what I'm about to tell you but I'm not going to stop and I'm not going to leave until I'm finished explaining, it's about time you knew"

Noruas laid his hands behind his head and rolled his eye's skyward; this was going to be a long one.

…

Noruas thrashed on the ground gasping for air he didn't need, Raphael was overtop of him holding him down, and making sure he didn't hurt himself.

"Listen to me!" Raphael said trying to console the hyperventilating being "You are going into shock, you need to slow your breathing!" obviously this didn't work and Noruas continued to fight Raphael, desperately trying to get away from the truth he had heard. "Raphael decided on another course of actions and forced Noruas to look at him eye to eye. "Listen to me, imagine Shuzen dying, imagine his bastard children writhing in your grip, make it real" He winced inwardly, one did not insult Shuzen lightly, especially not his children, not unless they had a very strong need for a slow and painful death, but the words had the desired effect on the boy.

Eventually his breaths became slower and he curled himself into a fetal position, sobbing quietly. Raphael laid his hand on the boy's back to comfort him through the news he had received which would have broken lesser men and most certainly traumatized the rest. After some time the weeping stopped and Noruas stood with his back to the vampire. Noruas inhaled deeply and exhaled with a shudder, he resolved to himself that he would never shed tears again, not while he drew breath, not while his newly learned blood oath still stood. Raphael did not approach him; he didn't dare come any closer

"Do you know what you must do?" he asked in a cautious manner. Noruas nodded once, afraid that if he spoke he would not be able to control the swell of unbidden tears that were being barely restrained. He made to pick up his dropped weapons, the whip and the sword hilt but Raphael stopped him "It is not possible to fulfill a blood oath with the weapons of another, do you have any other weapons you possess?" Noruas removed his knife from the holster inside of his jackets sleeve and he held it up into the air, admiring the way the black metal caught the flashes of lightning in its depths.

Raphael nodded his approval "That will do." Noruas held the knife in his teeth as he began to scale the imposing marble wall, finding foot hold and grips that most others would have missed. Raphael called up after him "Fria and Eirik are guarding the ones you seek, they have killed many of your kind in their time and you will not be able to defeat them on your own." Raphael hesitated, knowing full well the ramifications of what he was doing gave him a slight pause but he knew the outcome if it worked would be well worth it "I-I will cause a distraction so that you may enter the guest house but be warned, it has an early warning system and they will most likely know you are coming…Whatever happens it was an honor to meet you, Lungorthin, son of Gothmog."

At the sound of his adult name and his fathers name a strange feeling swelled inside of his double hearts, by the time he had found his next handhold mad giggling was bubbling up past the knife in his teeth and when he stood on top of the pristine marble barrier he was laughing loudly into the rain swept night at nothing in particular except maybe his own death and the death of others. At the foot of the wall Raphael shivered and the chill had little to do with the freezing rain. In the small amount of time he had been with Noruas he had ascertained that he had been insane for a long time and he had just given that insanity a direction, a focal point.

He felt truly sorry for those that the boy was hunting.

…

Noruas crawled head first down the opposite side of the wall and when he saw the group of buildings in the distance he knew instantly that was his goal. As soon as he touched down on the ground he moved from shadow to shadow until he reached the villa that the vampire had deemed the guest house. A growl escaped his lips and despite the inferno of emotions he was feeling, his head was clearer than it had ever been.

He moved silently between and overtop of the multitude of recreational buildings he encountered, using the darkness between lighting flashes to mask his presence, until he reached the center of the villa where a grand mansion stood over looking the main road leading to it. He could see movement in the soft glow behind the drawn curtains of the mansion and the outlines of the students he lead here. He hissed and took a step toward the large doorway when a lightning bolt illuminated the two figures guarding his route. The young Balrog stifled a gasp and retreated back to cover, hoping he had not been spotted but the two figures gave no sign of chasing him.

He recognized them as the 'Frida' and 'Eirik' from before, that Raphael had warned him of and although they weren't exactly taking their job very seriously, judging by their informal positions he hesitated, unconfident in his knowledge of their abilities. He decided he would have to wait them out, fortunately for him he wouldn't have to wait very long. The two vampires jumped up yelling at each other urgently and pointing towards his direction and for a second he thought he had been found out until he caught a strange scent in the air, a scent he remembered from a long time ago, brimstone. The vampires ran right past him out of the villa leaving the mansion virtually unguarded.

Noruas remained pressed into the shadows until he was sure the two vampires were a substantial distance away but as soon as the smell of brimstone overpowered the smell of vampire he continued with his sneaking until he was quite literally on their doorstep. He peered into the windows and saw that the students had compiled their luggage in the main entrance leaving a lone student to guard it while they explored. Noruas wiped the rain from the window and was delighted to discover the lone student was Mr. Aono. Noruas grinned and rubbed his hands together, Tsukune would be the best place to start, but how would he make his grand entrance?

He considered simply walking in the front door but that had become a little cliché by now so perhaps something a little bit more grandiose was in order. He climbed up onto a second floor balcony that led inside the mansion and with a handy trick he had learned with his knife the lock on one of the windows clattered to the floor and he entered the mansion, quietly shutting the window behind him.

He lowered himself into a crouch on all fours, confident that he had entered silently, ignorant to the fact that he had inadvertently set off the mansions early warning system and that Tsukune was staring at some rather threatening looking red letters. Noruas crawled up the wall, deciding that the ceiling would be a better vantage point, he had discovered that most species rarely looked up when they felt they were in danger, which allowed him to creep up on Ms. Sendo who was sitting on the top of the stairs still talking on the phone with her mother. It was time to finish what he started and have a little fun while he did it.

…

"Mom, what's going on? You're scaring me! Desu!" Yukari was on the verge of tears, her mother had called her to see if she had made it safely to what she had been told was a trip to a museum of monster history but as soon as Yukari had mentioned Noruas her mother went silent. "Mom!" she called out again but was met only with silence, she was about to check to see if her battery was dead when her mothers voice came forcibly from the tiny phones speakers

"Sweetie, I know you're scared but you have to remember something for mommy, okay?" Yukari was stunned by the urgency in her mother's voice but she responded with a small

"I'll try"

"This may be hard to remember but you have to tell me if he did or not. Did he have black teeth?"

"What?"

"Yukari, you have to remember! Did he have black teeth?"

Yukari racked her brain, she hadn't been that close to his open mouth before, but then she remembered him attacking that girl vampire, biting into her shoulder with teeth like obsidian shards.

"Yes! Yes he did!" her mother immediately screamed into the phone

"Yukari! Run! As far as you can from that place! Take your friends with you! I'll be their soon, just run!" Now Yukari really was crying

"Mom I don't understa"

"Hello Ms. Sendo" she jumped up and was seized from behind, her phone was forced from her grip and she heard the sound of crunching metal. Her wrist and mouth burned from where her captor held her and a voice she had become all too familiar with whispered harshly into her ear "Ms. Sendo you really shouldn't be out of bed this late, especially after that terrible accident"

Yukari squirmed and tried to scream, to warn Tsukune and the others, but it was like she was held in a white hot vise "Don't remember?" the voice continued. Yukari felt a push from behind and she was sent head first towards the staircase "You fell down some stairs" came the voice before she lost consciousness when her head hit the first stair.

…

Authors note:

_Fekiikiri jaci svaust zhin persvek thurkear_

Greetings he who walks in night.

_Fekiikiri jaci svaust renthisjic hesi ooble algbo ihk vi hemata_

Greetings he who speaks our tongue well for a vampire.

Well I thought that Noruas's return needed some explaining so there it is, let me know if you notice any errors I may have missed. Was anyone else completely blown away by the latest chapter in the manga? Because I sure was, man the last few chapters have sure been informative; I had no idea that Kurumu's tail could do that!

Well anyway thanks for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it!


	13. One Mortal Weakness

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario+Vampire nor do I make any money from writing, it is merely for the enjoyment of my readers and me.**

Despite being one of the supposedly un-dead Tsukune felt more alive than ever. He had felt the transformation coming on even as he carried Yukari to the room where he felt more then heard the girls were in. A fire began in his chest, slowly spreading throughout his body with each beat of his heart, a fire that brought new strength to his limbs wherever it decided to burn.

The fire grew more intense with each passing second, causing him to run faster and faster in an attempt to escape the burning, afraid that if he stopped he would be burnt to a cinder. He kept gaining momentum until he reached his destination where he only paused long enough to kick in the door scattering those behind it, he mentally winced that he could have hurt someone but he continued on past, dropped Yukari on the table and for a millisecond stopped to contemplate his next move.

Some small part of his brain looked past the feeling of liquid lead coursing through his veins and remembered he was still being chased and so began throwing furniture that he would not have been able to lift under regular circumstances against the shattered doorframe.

The burning had by now fully consumed his body but almost as soon as it had taken hold of his person it began to recede, slowly at first from his extremities like the tips of his fingers and toes leaving the areas where it had once inhabited filled with new life. Once he had run out of immediate furniture he lay panting against his makeshift barricade, letting the burning run its course he realized that the fire in his body wasn't receding it was moving somewhere else it was concentrating in his throat.

He barely had enough willpower left in his being left to say 'He's alive' to warn the girls of the impending danger. Noruas had made it even worse when he showed up strangely enough inside of a shadow on the ceiling , as soon as Tsukune had pinpointed his position he pitched a chair at him but by that time the burning was all but gone from his limbs and was now completely in his throat.

He had fallen on his knees, gasping for air that brought no relief and it was at that moment he became painfully aware of the other occupants in the room all of which had the relief he sought lying under only a thin layer of skin that could be easily penetrated by fangs that he only just realized had sprouted from his gums.

It was as if most of his brain had been wrenched from his control and was now working towards one goal, he had ever so slowly stood up with a grace he never knew he had, he could feel the predator part of him tense with anticipation before he pounced but the rational Tsukune would not allow it. He momentarily regained control and what would have been a pounce turned into a staggering step forward; even though he could not find it in himself to speak he hoped that the girls would realize that he was too far gone to approach. He felt relief when they dispersed, Moka and Kurumu to the bedroom and Mizore to the kitchen where he presumed that she was going to retrieve Yukari.

He breathed slowly in and out and closed his eyes to try to calm his raging instincts, imagine his surprise when he found he could still locate where each and every person was in the room even more clearly with his eyes closed than he could with them open. Each of them where identified by pinpricks of multi coloured light which he knew to be their Youkai aura from his training with Moka, they were very agitated and so stood out like white light in a black tunnel.

He could still find Noruas but he had no Youkai aura at all, instead he was simply surrounded by a blinding and massive killing intent that made him hard to pin down exactly because of its massive radius. He just barely registered this fact before he noticed that Yukari's and Mizore's lights had suddenly been extinguished. He almost cried out in shock but a hand placed on his shoulder silenced him. He could immediately identify the owner of the hand as Noruas from both the confident chuckle and his trademark knife pressing against the flesh at the back of his neck.

Tsukune ground his sharpened teeth in anger; he was just going to stab him in the back? He could feel the arm tense before the strike and both rationale Tsukune and instinctual Tsukune reached around and grabbed Noruas by the wrist. The smirk on Noruas's face quickly faded and his voice nearly trembled when he said.

"Now Tsukune, be reasonable."

It was payback time.

...

Noruas unceremoniously slid to a halt at the far end of the shower room with still enough momentum to warp a steel water pipe after hurtling through three walls, two of which were made of brick. I think it's been established that being punched in the face by a vampire is no fun. The building pressure inside of the disfigured pipe caused the shower system to activate, creating a rain of sea foam green water that drenched the sole occupant.

Noruas tried to stand but staggered when he realized that much to his dismay it was a _cold_ sea foam green rain. He gingerly felt his only newly re-grown jaw and knew that in the cold his healing factor would be of no use to him. Tsukune proved that his jaw would be the least of Noruas's problems when he tackled Noruas back into the shower room wall and followed up with a chop to the windpipe and a well aimed palm thrust to the solar plexus.

The wall that Noruas was being forced against couldn't take the punishment and caved outwards, spilling both combatants into the next door steam room. Even though the steam room wasn't in use there was enough lingering heat to jump start Noruas's healing factor. Bruised muscles, broken skin and fractured bones were soothed almost immediately as his body drank in the heat like a sponge. Noruas was brought out of his blissful warmth induced calm by yet another punch in the face from a silver haired Tsukune who had worked his way to the mount. After suffering a few more strikes, each of which could have dropped a full sized grizzly bear Noruas yelled

"Alright, Enough of that!" he jerked his head to one side allowing a fist that was meant for his nose hit the polished marble floor instead.

Noruas turned his head and bit down into the vulnerable forearm, drawing blood, cracking bone and proving enough of a distraction for him to grasp one of the heated rocks used in the steam room and club Tsukune across the temple with it. Even though the rock fared far worse than Tsukune it still brought stars in front of his vision. Taking advantage of the daze Noruas released the forearm and lifted his upper body enough that he could bring down his forehead on the bridge of the vampires nose with a sickening crunch.

Noruas easily shoved the semi- conscious Tsukune off his person and stood to contemplate the situation. He casually walked to one side of the struggling form and kicked him in the abdomen, sending him sliding back through the holes that he had so recently made with Noruas until he came to rest in front of the barricade he had made earlier.

Tsukune used a protruding table leg to help him regain his feet but nearly collapsed again when pain lanced through his right arm. There was a ragged bite mark in the sleeve of his school uniform and from the feel of it the bite had cut cleanly through one of the bones in his forearm and the two ends were grinding together. His newfound healing factor was doing what it could but since he was still a newborn he had never fed before and so his healing was limited.

The double blow to the head had caused his rationale side of his brain to waver and gave the instinctual side enough time to figure out that any injury he sustained in this fight would be permanent and that there were two potential feeding sources hiding inside of the nearby bedroom behind only a flimsy door that would both heal his injuries and relieve his burning throat if only he could reach it in time.

Despite the weak protest of Tsukune's more human side he made a lunge at the bedroom only to come up short when something caught his foot, only because of his vampire reflexes was he able to catch himself before he fell flat on his face. He turned his head quickly to determine the source of his fall and lo and behold Noruas had a hold on his ankle with half his torso inside of a shadow grinning with homicidal intent.

"So quick to turn on your friends? I'm surprised at you Mr. Aono especially since they think so highly of you." Noruas taunted him as he rose from the shadow completely and motioned Tsukune towards him "Come on Casanova" he said sheathing his knife and raising his fists "Let's finish this."

With rationale Tsukune taking a backseat at the moment, Instinctual Tsukune growled deeply and raised himself off the ground to face his opponent. Despite the more bestial nature that had taken over Tsukune, it's body still remembered the weeks of training spent with inner Moka and so took a more professional Hachiji Dachi stance in sharp contrast with Noruas's fisticuffs approach.

Tsukune, in attempt to catch his opponent off guard, feinted with a right hook and brought up his left fist in anticipation of the dodge to try to hit the floating rib. Noruas ignored the feint and when the real attack followed through it met nothing but air, Noruas had disappeared. Tsukune scanned the room for a surprise attack and pivoted wildly when a voice sang out in English from several dark corners of the room.

"_The devil went down to Georgia; he was looking for a soul to steal._" A fist appeared from the floor and lashed out at the back of Tsukune's knee to allow a fist that sprouted from a wall to strike him across the face. Tsukune staggered and tried to concentrate on finding the center of the killing intent that still emanated intensely from Noruas even though he was still hiding in the shadows. _"He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind: he was willing to make a deal." _Noruas dropped from the ceiling and smashed his elbow onto Tsukune's instep and sink into the floor only to re-emerge to deliver a devastating uppercut.

Tsukune reeled backwards, blood dripped from his mouth from where he had almost bit his own tongue in half, he could almost pinpoint the center of the killing inferno.

_"When he came across a young boy sawing on a fiddle and playing it hot, the devil jumped up on a hickory stump and said 'Boy let me tell you what!'" _ A slice across both Achilles tendons and hamstrings from behind forced Tsukune to his knees but he never faltered in his concentration. _"'I bet you didn't know this but I'm a fiddle player too and if you care to take a dare I'll make a bet with you. Now you play pretty good fiddle son but give the devil his due, I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul that say's I'm better than you!'" _

'Got you!' Tsukune thought, he was finally able to zero in on the center of the wave of killing intent and he wasn't the least bit surprised that it was all being held together by an almost tangible core of hate. In some small corner of his mind he wondered what Moka's family could have done to create this hatred but at the moment it was unimportant.

He had once before observed how Moka could end a fight with a single massive blow to the soft internal organs when she had been fighting with her older sister Kahlua, but he didn't have time to wait for an opening for such an attack so he was going to have to make his own. When Noruas descended on him with his knife held two-handed, no doubt to bring it down with the purpose of cleaving Tsukune's skull, Tsukune, quick as a cobra's strike, seized both of his attackers hand in his left fist while he brought up his right fist into the exposed torso.

Once again the sound of popping balloons was dominant, only trumped by the sound of at least eight ribs being reduced to the consistency of sand and the sound of cracking plaster as the wall behind Noruas split from the immense amount of Youki infused into the fist. The ripple from the impact was almost visible as it traveled up his body and spewed from his mouth in the form of a fountain of golden blood and perhaps a few thicker globs of material that are better left unmentioned.

Noruas's eye's dimmed and the knife fell from his hands and clattered to the floor, he slowly slumped against Tsukune, the fierce black toothed grimace never leaving his face. Tsukune supported the dead weight for a few more seconds before letting the body fall off to the side leaving him to collapse on the floor nursing his injured hand, despite the power of his punch it still felt like hitting a brick, along with several other wounds he had sustained.

After a few more minutes in this position rationale Tsukune reasserted control over his body and gradually pushed himself up until he was just barely standing by leaning up against the wall. He winced as with each movement he, while still using the wall as support, made his way to where the girls were hiding. He was certain he could control his thirst by now and he needed to know if they were hurt as well so that could search the mansion for Mizore and Yukari along with the rest of the students now that they current threat had ended.

So busy was he trying to move along that he didn't notice the fiery eye's behind him come back into focus. He only had time to turn around when he heard the roar before he was tackled back into the wall he was leaning against but instead of feeling the expected resistance he felt nothing, heard nothing, none of his senses came into play and when he opened his eye's there was nothing to see but he still felt the pain from the blow.

All at once all of his senses returned to him, he was in midair and then after a few seconds of falling he plummeted into green puddle of water outside the mansion, it was still raining heavily and the shock from the rapid transition in environments and the fall gave the person on top of him enough time to plunge his dagger in between Tsukune's ribs.

Noruas had pushed both of them into a shadow, although in his weakened state he had misjudged the location they would reappear from and so instead of appearing at the door step of the building, they ended up appearing about three stories up. Tsukune just stared at the knife in astonishment like it was some newly grown appendage while Noruas heaved a fresh batch of golden blood and fell off to his side.

For the better part of fifteen minutes they just lay their coughing up both honey-gold and crimson blood respectively, trying to work up the strength to finish off their horribly weakened opponent. Tsukune found it in himself to grasp the dagger by the hilt and with a sharp intake of breath and a tug lifted it free of its bloody sheath bringing forth another red tide but allowing his body to begin the healing process. Because of the freezing rain Noruas's healing factor had slowed to a crawl, leaving him just as close to death as the vampire beside him.

The strike that had been meant for Tsukune's heart went unintentionally wide due to a flinch form over exerting his wounded organs, he knew that at the moment if they kept fighting both of them would die so with a tremendous effort he heaved himself to his knees and finally to his feet.

"Sorry Romeo" he said with some of his usual falsely cheerful demeanour still intact past the blood pooling in three of his lungs and with another bloody cough "But I have slightly smaller fish to fry"

Noruas tenderly but as quickly as possible limped back to the mansion, every few steps his innards would shift causing him to stagger and fall from the painful reminder of the damage that had been done to him but he eventually made it to a shadow that he fell into more than he jumped into. Not long after a howl of anguish could be heard from inside the mansion

"Tsukune!"

That made said vampire sit up abruptly, recent injuries be damned, he had heard that scream several times before and he knew the owner along with what it meant, Moka thought he had died. He stood immediately only pausing to pick up the dagger that Noruas had left behind; even though his healing factor was working at a snail's pace it was enough to at least cover his wounds with new skin to stop the bleeding and as long as he had blood in his veins he would always answer that voice.

Still clutching the knife in one hand he burst through the mansion doors, he could hear the telltale sounds of a fight from the room they had been hiding in and so ran to the doorway that lead to the room but the room was blocked off by the barricade he had set up earlier. He decided he would have to find another way in, he did a visible double take and if he was in his right mind he would of said 'well duh, I'm a vampire' but instead he just skipped to the part where he ploughed through the barricade scattering the furniture although the action brought fresh waves of pain.

His heart sank when he noticed that the sounds of battle had stopped and he feared that he had been too late. He hobbled to the bedroom and it took him a few painful seconds to enter as his hands slick with his own blood tried to grip the door handle but eventually he was able to push his way in. The room was in disarray, the lavish bed had been flipped and its sheets torn, the walls sported several indentations and the contents of the vanity had been spread across the floor.

At the center of the destruction sat a lone figure, its face obscured by shadow. Tsukune felt anger bubble up inside of him once more making his fangs extend his fists clench and a growl escape unbidden from his lips, there was only one person who it could be in the room. There would be no more kindness shown he would kill it with one blow, to the head this time.

As he prepared his strike lightning momentarily illuminated the room from outside and in that instant he saw cerulean blue hair not fire red brought to light by the flash. He quickly lowered his fist and called out in shock.

"Kurumu!" He dropped the knife and slid down next to her and she fell backwards into his awaiting arms, her school uniform was torn in several places, blood stained her teeth, her right cheek was swollen and her eyes were closed. "Kurumu?" he said quietly, shaking her gently causing her violet eye's to flutter open.

Tsukune nearly sobbed with relief but he needed to stay focused "Where is Moka?"He asked intently but delicately. She just stared up at him sadly and shook her head. Tsukune closed his eyes took a deep shuddering breath and then exhaled slowly; he needed to stay calm for her sake if nothing else.

"Where is Noruas?" She opened her mouth slightly as if to say something but her eyes closed once more and she went limp in his arms. He gently lay her head on the ground and stood with a small grunt of effort, she was still breathing but she had been seriously wounded from some massive blow to her stomach, he could tell by the way her breath rasped as if filled with liquid. There was nothing he could do for her at the moment except go and find the one responsible, he limped to the door and took one guilty look back at Kurumu before reaching for the doorknob.

His hand froze before he touched the cold metal as a thought struggled to the top of his head like drowning swimmer, desperate to be realized, until finally it dawned on him.

'Wasn't Kurumu wearing a bathrobe the last time I saw her?' he slowly turned around back to the inside of the room when a flash of blue rushed into his arms, Kurumu had wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into the front of his shirt.

Tsukune blinked several times in surprise and pried her away just far enough to get a look at her face; she was smiling brightly up at him with bloody teeth. She moved away from him and her smile grew wider as he pitched forward face first onto the floor bringing into full view the knife hilt that protruded from his back. Kurumu's smile kept growing until it stretched literally from ear to ear, she coughed and an amber liquid slithered past her now black pointed teeth.

She fell on her hands and knees next to Tsukune allowing him a good look at the golden puddle that she was coughing up until a blue gumball splashed into the center and a smooth mocking spoke into his ear.

"Those things really are amazing aren't they? Sweet dreams lover boy." Blood loss and pain had finally taken their toll and Tsukune almost welcomed the soft blackness that enveloped his mind.

...

Authors note:

Whew! In hindsight I should have picked a slightly less ambitious project for my first fan fiction but I'm stuck with it now and I'll do my best to finish it.

Sorry for the long wait but since school's out for summer my job switches to full time allowing me less time to write, as for my chapters being short, well I find that the longer my chapters the more it seems like a rush job and so I try to sacrifice quantity for quality.

I'm probably going to change the story's rating to Mature before I post the next chapter just in case I overstep the boundary of Teen rating or if I decide I want to try my hand at some lemons.

Oh yeah, and thank you Charlie Daniels band for writing The Devil Went Down to Georgia, even if I like the rock version better, so that I could use it in my story.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you guy's keep me going!


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